Community rules

Within 200 metres and right now. The app does not let you move the pin any further away, and what is heard from others is not published. If you were told about it, let whoever saw it report it.

No faces, no number plates, no describing what anyone is wearing or where they are from. What is happening and where, nothing else. Notes that talk about someone are not published; in photos and clips we blur faces and number plates and remove the sound if it names anyone, but that is a safety net: do not point the camera at anyone up close.

Every time you send an alert you declare that you are seeing it yourself, now, from a public place, that you are not uploading anyone’s data and that you answer for what you publish. You record it yourself with the app, not from your gallery. If something identifies someone despite the blurring, take it down from ‘My reports’ or report it from the alert itself.

If in doubt, do not publish it. If you got it wrong, close it from ‘My reports’. A false alert scares people who have done nothing wrong and lowers your trust.

The red button tells everyone within 500 metres and your circle that you need help, with your position. Only for when the danger is to you. Using it to try it out or for anything else means the alert is taken down and can mean your account is blocked.

‘Still there’, ‘It’s over’ and ‘It’s false’ move someone else’s trust. Vote only on what you have seen yourself.

Yalerta is not an emergency service. If someone is in danger, call before you report. The app reminds you of this on everything red.

We tell you why. Every takedown has a reference and an explanation you can look up, and you can appeal from that same page for six months. How it works is in the terms.

Trust is personal. Creating accounts to vote for your own alerts or to get round a block gets all of them blocked.

We do not give points for publishing. They come later, and only if other people who were nearby confirm what you reported, or if your vote turns out to be right. A disproved alert costs more than a true one earns, and a disproved red one costs five times more: a red false alarm wakes people up and spends the credibility of all the others. Asking for help never scores, for or against.

Accounts voting for each other to climb the ranking is detected and undone: the points go back on both accounts and it is logged as ‘score corrected’. And your name may not pass itself off as an emergency service, a public authority or us.

In this order: the alert is hidden, your trust drops and your alerts reach fewer people, and if it happens again, the account is blocked. If there are signs of a crime against someone’s life or safety, we inform the authorities, as the law requires.