Terms of Service — Guardian

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of Guardian ("Guardian", "we", "us"), a product of OWOS Global Ventures, Inc., a Delaware corporation ("OWOS", "we", "us"). By creating an account or using Guardian you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use Guardian.

These Terms incorporate by reference our Privacy Policy and our Emergency Disclaimer. Together those three documents are the complete agreement between you and OWOS regarding Guardian. Where a specific document addresses a topic in more detail — the Privacy Policy for data handling, the Emergency Disclaimer for emergency limitations — that document controls on that topic.

1. What Guardian is

Guardian is an informational tool that lets you store an emergency profile (medical, insurance, contacts, and other information you choose to provide) and generate a personal Emergency QR code that displays only the information you have marked visible.

Guardian is not an emergency service. It does not contact 911 or any emergency dispatcher on your behalf, it is not a medical device, it does not provide medical advice, and it does not replace identification, insurance cards, medical alert bracelets, or any other primary documentation. See the Emergency Disclaimer for the full description of these limits.

2. No guarantee of access or response

We make no representation or warranty that any emergency responder, hospital, employer, coworker, family member, or third party will see, scan, access, read, understand, or act on your Guardian profile. Use of Guardian does not guarantee any outcome in an emergency.

3. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 13 years old to register a Guardian account for yourself. Guardian is a personal safety tool, and we do not require you to be an adult to have a Guardian safety profile.

Under 13. Children under 13 may not register or use Guardian independently. We do not knowingly create accounts for children under 13. Parent- or guardian-managed Guardian profiles for younger children are a planned future capability and are not available today; until they exist, no under-13 account may be created by any route.

If you are 13–17. You may use Guardian only with the permission of a parent or legal guardian. They must review and accept these Terms with you and are responsible for your use of Guardian. You must also have their permission before you purchase or pay for a membership. Where the law of your state or country requires a parent or legal guardian to enter into a contract on your behalf, that parent or guardian enters into these Terms for you. Do not enter payment information that is not yours to use.

You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you enter and for keeping your sign-in credentials confidential. You are responsible for all activity under your account.

4. OWOS identity and OVIN verification

Guardian is a federation module of the OWOS identity system. Creating or using a Guardian account requires an OWOS Passport, and Guardian verifies with OWOS Core (OVIN) that the email address and OWOS Identity Number you supply belong to the same Core account. We do not create, issue, or modify OWOS Identity Numbers or Support IDs; those are issued by OVIN and mirrored into Guardian.

If verification fails, is unavailable, or returns a mismatch, we may refuse or suspend access and will record the attempt in your audit log. Your use of OWOS Core is also subject to OWOS Core's own terms; if your Core Passport is suspended or revoked, your Guardian access may end with it.

5. Trusted Circle and information about other people

Guardian lets you add emergency contacts and link other OWOS identities to your Trusted Circle. By entering another person's name, phone number, email address, or OWOS Identity Number, you represent that you have that person's permission to do so. You are solely responsible for the accuracy of contact information you enter.

Entering someone's phone number does not authorize Guardian to text them. Guardian sends text messages only to a number whose owner personally opted in on Guardian's public consent page and confirmed possession of that number with a one-time code. You can send an invitation; only they can accept it.

SMS consent is optional, unchecked by default, separate from acceptance of these Terms, and is never a condition of purchase or of Guardian service.
Program: Guardian SOS and safety alerts from OWOS Guardian Safety Network (OGSN). Message frequency varies and depends on Guardian safety activity. Message and data rates may apply.
A recipient may reply STOP at any time to opt out, or HELP for help. STOP takes effect immediately and Guardian will not text that number again unless the person completes a new invitation.
If a contact has not consented to SMS, Guardian may still notify them by email where an email address is on file.
Mobile information and SMS consent are not sold or shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes.
The full opt-in flow is documented publicly at /sms-consent-review.

6. SOS alerts

Guardian's SOS feature attempts to notify the emergency contacts you have saved, by SMS and/or email, with the message and location you choose to include at the time you trigger it.

If you separately enable scanner-initiated SOS, a person who scans your active online QR may start an SOS without signing in to your account. This is optional and off by default. The scanner may provide a short description; location is included only if you also enable scanner location sharing and the scanner supplies it. We do not verify a scanner's identity or their description of events. Cooldowns limit repeat alerts, but cannot guarantee that a scanner acts in good faith. Turn this setting off or rotate your online QR if you believe it is being misused; already delivered alerts cannot be withdrawn.

SOS does not contact emergency services. It does not dial 911, 999, 112, or any dispatcher. Always call your local emergency number first.
Delivery depends on third parties outside our control — mobile carriers, SMS gateways, email providers, spam filters, device settings, and network availability. We do not guarantee that any alert will be delivered, delivered promptly, read, or acted upon.
Location sharing is best-effort and depends on your device granting location permission and having a signal. Location may be missing, delayed, or inaccurate.
Alerts may include your name, your message, and a map link, and are shown to whoever controls the receiving phone or inbox. Recipients may retain them indefinitely.
Recipients may unsubscribe from Guardian emails, which can prevent future alerts from reaching them by that channel.
You may not use SOS for testing at scale, pranks, harassment, or any non-emergency mass messaging. We may rate-limit or disable SOS on accounts that misuse it.

6a. Optional situation details and updates

When you activate an SOS you may optionally choose a situation category and write a short plain-text description of what happened, and you may add further updates after the alert is already sent. Sending the SOS is never blocked by these fields.

Only the authorized activator may add situation details or updates. Receiving an acknowledgement link does not permit editing an incident.
Text is plain text only, subject to a length limit and rate limits, and is displayed to recipients as text. Do not include information you are not entitled to share.
Updates are appended with timestamps; they do not overwrite the original description or earlier updates, and they are part of the incident record.
Guardian does not verify the identity, credentials, or responder status of whoever activates an SOS. Situation details are labelled as reported by the person who activated the SOS, and they are not medical advice or a verified account of events.
Situation details are context for that one incident. They do not change your medical profile.

6b. Marking yourself safe, Geolock, and check-ins

Marking yourself safe or cancelling an SOS sends a follow-up notice to the recipients who already received that alert, on channels they already consented to. Delivery of that notice is subject to the same third-party limits as the alert itself.
A recipient's acknowledgement means only that they opened the alert. It does not mean emergency services were contacted, that anyone is on the way, or that help is guaranteed.
Geolock live-location sharing is off by default, lasts only for the session you start, goes only to people you explicitly grant, and can be revoked by you at any time. Location accuracy and availability depend on your device and network.
Check-ins are a private personal rhythm for confirming you are okay. Nobody at OWOS monitors your check-ins, and a missed check-in does not summon help.

7. Emergency QR codes and offline cards

Guardian issues you an Emergency QR that resolves online to the fields you have marked visible. You may rotate your QR at any time; rotating immediately and permanently invalidates the online link in every previously issued or printed copy. It cannot erase details embedded in an offline QR. Reporting a damaged, lost, stolen, or copied carrier does not automatically rotate your QR; you must separately confirm rotation. You can reprint the current QR in card, wallet, backpack-tag, or sticker sizes without rotating it. Replace or remove older physical copies yourself. A printed carrier can be copied, damaged, or become unreadable, and we cannot guarantee scanability on any material or device.

Offline cards are permanent and cannot be revoked. If you choose the Balanced or Maximum Emergency Access privacy mode, selected lifesaving information — such as blood type, allergies, conditions, medications, and primary emergency contacts — is encoded directly into the QR image itself so it can be read with no internet connection.

Anyone who scans, photographs, screenshots, prints, or copies that QR can read that embedded information forever, offline, without our servers and without any log.
Rotating your QR, editing your profile, downgrading to Maximum Privacy, cancelling your membership, or deleting your account does not retract information already embedded in a QR that exists in the world. It only affects QR codes generated afterward.
Embedded information can become stale. If you update your medical details, previously printed offline cards will still show the old details until you print a fresh copy and replace them. Regenerating the online link alone does not erase embedded details.
Your OWOS Identity Number, Support ID, insurance details, home address, date of birth, and email address are never embedded offline; they remain online-only so they stay revocable.

Before an offline card is generated for the first time we show you this warning in the app and record your acknowledgement, including the time you gave it. If we do not have a recorded acknowledgement, Guardian falls back to link-only (Maximum Privacy) mode. By acknowledging that warning and generating an offline card, you accept the permanence described in this section and assume the risk of that disclosure.

8. Guardian Basic, Guardian+, billing, and cancellation

Guardian Basic is free. Basic includes your emergency profile, medical and insurance information, emergency contacts and their text-message consent, your Emergency QR (including printing, offline cards, and wallet passes), scan previews and scan notices, your transparency log, security settings, support, account lifecycle controls, trusted connections, and viewing a location someone has chosen to share with you. Your Emergency QR never depends on payment: it keeps working on Basic.

Guardian+ is optional and adds SOS alerts, SOS started by someone who scans your QR (when you turn it on), timed “I’m Safe” check-ins, sharing your own live location, and incident reports generated from your own SOS records. Guardian+ is available at $2.99 USD per month or $29.99 USD per year, billed in advance through our payment processor, and renews automatically at the interval you choose until you cancel. Your checkout shows the plan and billing interval you choose. You may cancel at any time from the billing portal; cancellation stops future charges and takes effect at the end of the period you already paid for. Ending an active SOS you started is never restricted.

When Guardian+ ends (cancellation, non-payment, or the end of a sponsorship), your account returns to Guardian Basic. Your account, OWOS Passport link, emergency information, contacts, Emergency QR, and history are kept; nothing is deleted and your QR is not rotated or replaced because of a billing change. Only Guardian+ features stop.

Sponsored memberships. New sponsorship purchases are currently paused. Existing sponsorships continue under the terms in effect when they were purchased. A sponsored plan issues redeemable seats; each recipient creates and controls their own Guardian account. Paying for someone’s membership gives a sponsor no access to that person’s profile, medical information, contacts, location, SOS history, or any other Guardian data, and no ability to act on their behalf. If a sponsorship is cancelled or lapses, the recipient returns to Guardian Basic.

Sponsors may distribute invitations using seat links, email invitations, or a bulk contact list. An invitation is not an account or a membership until the recipient accepts it and redeems an available seat using their own OWOS Passport. Keep invitation links private: someone who has a valid link may be able to claim the associated seat. By providing invitation contact details, a sponsor represents that they have permission to use those details for that invitation. Sponsors may not use invitations to harass, pressure, monitor, mislead, or impersonate another person. We may block or revoke abusive or fraudulent invitations or sponsorship access. Sponsors may revoke unclaimed invitations, but a sponsored seat does not give its funder access to the recipient's private Guardian information or authority to act for the recipient.

No free trial of Guardian+. A trialing or incomplete payment state does not grant Guardian+ features.

Refunds. Except where a refund is required by applicable law, all charges are final and non-refundable, and we do not pro-rate or refund partial billing periods, unused time, or periods in which you did not use Guardian. If you believe you were billed in error, contact guardian-support@owosgv.com within 30 days of the charge and we will review it in good faith. Consumers in jurisdictions with statutory withdrawal or cancellation rights (such as the EEA and UK) retain those rights.

Non-payment. If a Guardian+ payment fails, your plan enters a past-due state and we will attempt to notify you and retry the charge. If the balance remains unpaid, Guardian+ ends and your account returns to Guardian Basic as described above.

Charitable impact. OWOS commits 8% of its defined revenue allocation to charitable impact. This commitment is not added to your price, and it does not change what you pay.

Prices may change with at least 30 days’ notice. Continued use after a price change is acceptance of the new price. You are responsible for any applicable taxes.

9. Acceptable use

You may not (a) enter information about another person without their permission, (b) use Guardian to impersonate anyone, (c) attempt to bypass security, access controls, paywalls, or rate limits, (d) reverse engineer, scrape, resell, or provide Guardian as a service to third parties, (e) harvest or bulk-resolve QR tokens you were not given, (f) upload malware or unlawful content, or (g) use Guardian for any unlawful purpose.

10. Your content

You retain ownership of the information you enter into Guardian. You grant us a limited, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, process, transmit, and display that information solely to operate Guardian for you — including showing your visible fields to anyone who scans your Emergency QR while it is active, encoding the fields your chosen privacy mode allows into an offline card, and transmitting SOS alerts to your contacts.

11. Our intellectual property

Guardian, OWOS, OVIN, the Guardian and OWOS names and logos, and all software, designs, and content we provide are owned by OWOS and its licensors. These Terms grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use Guardian for your own emergency-preparedness purposes and nothing more.

12. Third-party services

Guardian relies on third parties for hosting, database, payments, SMS, email delivery, mapping, and identity verification. We are not responsible for the acts, omissions, outages, or terms of those providers, and their failure may prevent a scan, an alert, or a payment from working.

12a. Guardian is not insurance

Guardian is not an insurer, insurance policy, health plan, or guarantee of coverage. We store insurance details only when you choose to enter them. We do not verify that a policy is current, that a provider will accept it, or that any care, service, loss, or expense will be covered or reimbursed.

13. Termination

You may deactivate Guardian at any time from your account settings. Cancelling a subscription ends Guardian access according to its billing period. Deactivating Guardian ends your membership and turns off Guardian access and online QR resolution, but deletes nothing: your Guardian account and information stay linked to the same OWOS Passport so you can deliberately reactivate it later; it returns on Guardian Basic, plus any Guardian+ time you already paid for that has not expired. Reactivation does not restore a cancelled subscription or a released sponsored seat, and does not replace your QR unless you choose to. Erasing your Guardian data is a separate, permanent action described in our Privacy Policy. None of these actions deletes your OWOS Passport or your independent relationships with other OWOS apps, and you may export your data or deactivate at any time, whatever your plan. We may suspend or terminate your account for violation of these Terms, loss of a valid OWOS Passport, or where required by law. On termination we will delete or deactivate your profile data per our Privacy Policy. Termination does not retract any offline QR card already in circulation (see section 7). Sections 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 survive termination.

14. Disclaimers

Guardian is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, uninterrupted availability, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that Guardian will be available at the moment you need it, that a scan will resolve, or that an SOS alert will be delivered. QR performance depends on the condition, size, contrast, lighting, camera, scanner software, device, and network. A QR carrier does not authenticate the person carrying or presenting it, and a copied carrier may be mistaken for the original.

15. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, OWOS and its affiliates, officers, and contractors will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, data, goodwill, or other intangible losses, or for any personal injury, worsened medical outcome, delayed care, or death, arising out of or in connection with your use of or inability to use Guardian, including any failure of a responder, contact, carrier, or third party to receive, access, read, or act on your profile or SOS alert. Our total aggregate liability for any claim arising out of these Terms is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim or $100 USD. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions, so parts of this section may not apply to you. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for gross negligence, willful misconduct, fraud, or any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

16. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless OWOS, its affiliates, and their officers, employees, and contractors from and against any claim, demand, loss, liability, damage, penalty, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to: (a) information you entered about yourself or another person, including inaccurate medical or contact information; (b) your addition of a contact or Trusted Circle member without their permission; (c) SMS or email alerts sent to recipients as a result of your use of Guardian; (d) your decision to generate, print, share, or display an offline QR card and any disclosure that results; (e) your violation of these Terms or applicable law; or (f) your infringement of any third party's rights. We may assume exclusive defense of any such claim at your expense, and you will cooperate with us.

17. Governing law and venue

These Terms and any dispute arising out of them are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States — the state of incorporation of OWOS Global Ventures, Inc. — without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, and by applicable United States federal law. Where arbitration does not apply, you and OWOS submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in the State of Delaware. If you are a consumer residing in the EEA or the UK, nothing here deprives you of the protection of the mandatory consumer laws of your country of residence or of your right to bring proceedings there.

18. Dispute resolution and binding arbitration

Please read this section carefully. It affects how disputes between you and OWOS are resolved and limits your ability to bring a class action or have a jury trial.

Informal resolution first. Before starting a formal proceeding, you agree to contact guardian-support@owosgv.com with a written description of the dispute and to work with us in good faith for 30 days.
Binding arbitration. If the dispute is not resolved, you and OWOS agree that it will be settled by final and binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, conducted in the State of Delaware, or remotely by video or documents at your election. The arbitrator decides all issues except the enforceability of the class action waiver below, which is for a court to decide.
Class action and jury waiver. Disputes will be brought only in your individual capacity, not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, consolidated, or representative proceeding, and you and OWOS waive any right to a jury trial.
Exceptions. Either party may bring a claim in small-claims court, or seek injunctive relief in court to protect intellectual property or stop unauthorized access. Nothing here prevents you from filing a complaint with a government agency.
Opt out. You may reject this arbitration agreement by emailing guardian-support@owosgv.com with the subject "Arbitration Opt-Out" within 30 days of first accepting these Terms. Opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms.
If any part of this section is found unenforceable, the remainder stays in effect, except that if the class action waiver is unenforceable, this entire section 18 does not apply.

Any claim must be brought within one year after it arises, to the extent permitted by law. Consumers in the EEA and UK are not subject to this arbitration section where local law prohibits it.

19. Changes

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be announced in-app or by email at least 30 days before they take effect where practicable. Continued use after the effective date means you accept the updated Terms.

20. Miscellaneous

If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. These Terms do not create any agency, partnership, or employment relationship. There are no third-party beneficiaries.

21. Contact and notices

Guardian is operated by:

OWOS Global Ventures, Inc.
910 Noddymill Lane East
Worthington, OH 43085
United States

Questions about these Terms: guardian-support@owosgv.com. Privacy questions: guardian-privacy@owosgv.com.

Privacy Policy — what we store, what a scan discloses, and your data rights.
Emergency Disclaimer — what Guardian and SOS can and cannot do in an emergency.