Safety centre

This page is shown in the app under Settings, Safety. The first half is for you. The second half is our internal runbook, published so you can see exactly what we do when you press the button.

In an emergency, call 112

If you are in danger right now, call 112. It is free, works from any phone in Malta, and connects you to police, ambulance and fire in English or Maltese. Do this first. Use the Imxi unsafe button second.

Other useful numbers:

• Malta Police non emergency: 2122 4001 (Police General Headquarters, Pjazza San Kalcidonju, Floriana FRN 1530)
• Malta Police Cyber Crime Unit (online harassment, threats, blackmail): 2294 2231, computer.crime@gov.mt
• Supportline 179: 179, free, day and night, for anyone who needs support or a referral
• Victim Support Malta: 2122 8333, emotional and legal support for victims of crime

What the "I feel unsafe" button does

You will find it on every plan, in every chat, and under Safety in Settings. When you press it:

1. We create a safety bundle. Within a second, the app sends us your location (if allowed), your IP address and device details, the plan you are on, the people you have chatted with in the last 48 hours with the last messages, and any note you type. Nothing is deleted from your phone.
2. Our safety team is alerted. The alert lands in our safety dashboard and in our on call channel with a loud notification. A person, not a bot, picks it up.
3. You see three options on screen.
   • Call 112. One tap dials the emergency number.
   • Share my situation. Sends a text to your trusted contacts, or opens your share sheet, with a short message and a link that shows where you are and what plan you are on. You choose who gets it.
   • Keep sending my location. If you have location switched on, we record your live position for the next 30 minutes so that we, your trusted contacts, and if needed the police, can find you.
4. We contact you. We will message you in the app, and call you if we have your number and it is safe to do so, to ask what you need.
5. We involve the police when you want us to, or when we must. See below.
6. You close the alert when you are safe, from the same screen. You can also just leave it; we will check in.

Pressing the button by mistake is fine. Close it and tell us, and nothing else happens.

What is in the bundle

The bundle is stored as a file in our secure storage with a link that only our safety team can open. The link you share with trusted contacts shows a reduced view: your name, your location, the plan name and place. It does not show your messages or other people's details.

Who sees it

• Our safety team ([two named people, with an on call rota]). Every time someone opens a bundle it is logged.
• Your trusted contacts, if you share it, and only the reduced view.
• The Malta Police, if you ask us to send it, if they lawfully request it, or if we believe there is a credible threat to your life or safety or someone else's.
• Nobody else. Not the person you are with, not the host, not other users.

The bundle is kept for three years, then deleted, unless it is needed for an investigation or legal claim. You can ask us what we hold at [privacy@imxi.mt].

Trusted contacts

Add up to [3] trusted contacts in Settings, Safety. Give a name and a phone number or email. They do not need to have Imxi. When you share your situation, they receive a text or a link from your own phone, so they see it is from you. We only use these details for the safety share; we never contact them ourselves for any other reason.

Sharing a plan before you go

Every plan has a share button that sends a link to the plan page. Send it to a friend before you head out. It is the simplest safety habit there is.

Contacting the police yourself

• Emergency: 112.
• Non emergency: 2122 4001, or go into any police station. There is at least one in every district.
• You can file a report without going to a station using the remote reporting form on servizz.gov.mt (search "remote police report"). You choose a time and they call you back.
• For online harassment, threats or blackmail, the Cyber Crime Unit on 2294 2231 or computer.crime@gov.mt.

If you report something to the police that involves Imxi, give them the plan or profile details and tell them to contact us at [legal@imxi.mt]. We respond to police requests quickly and we will preserve the relevant data as soon as we hear from you, so nothing is lost while the request is being made.

Internal safety runbook

This is what our team does. It is published so users can hold us to it. Timings are targets during our staffed hours ([08:00 to 02:00, seven days]) and we work to the same targets outside them through the on call rota.

Roles

• On call safety lead: first responder. Holds the on call phone. [Name], [name], rota in [location].
• Second: backup if the lead does not acknowledge within 10 minutes.
• Escalation owner: [founder name], decides on police escalation where the situation is unclear, and is the named contact for the Malta Police.

Step 1: acknowledge, within 15 minutes

• The alert appears in the admin safety queue and the Slack safety channel. The on call lead acknowledges it in the dashboard (status: acknowledged). The target is 15 minutes from the alert being created; the goal is under 5.
• If no acknowledgement after 10 minutes, Slack pings the second. After 20 minutes it pages the escalation owner.
• Read the whole bundle before doing anything else. Note the last known location, the plan, the people involved and any note.

Step 2: reach the user

• Send an in app message from the safety account: "We got your alert. Are you safe right now? Reply, or call 112 if you are in danger." Keep it short so it can be read in a glance.
• If a phone number is on the account, call it. Let it ring. If it goes to voicemail, do not leave a message that could be overheard; send a text: "This is Imxi safety. Reply 1 if you are safe, 2 if you need help."
• If the user replies they are safe, ask if they want anything done (block, report, nothing). Record it and close the alert with their agreement.
• If the user does not reply within 10 minutes and the live location is still moving or the note suggests danger, go to step 3.

Step 3: decide on police escalation

Escalate to the Malta Police with the bundle when any of these is true:

• the user asks us to;
• the note, the messages, or the situation describe a credible threat to life or physical safety (violence, being followed, being held, sexual assault, a weapon, a medical emergency);
• the user is unreachable, the live location is still moving or stopped somewhere unexpected, and the plan or recent chats involve someone with prior reports;
• the alert involves anyone who appears to be under 18.

This is also our duty under Article 18 of the EU Digital Services Act, which requires us to promptly inform law enforcement where we become aware of a suspected criminal offence involving a threat to someone's life or safety.

How to escalate:

1. Call 112 if it is happening now. Give the user's name, last known location, description of the situation, and say you are calling on behalf of the Imxi app safety team.
2. For anything that is serious but not an immediate emergency, call the police on 2122 4001, explain, and ask which unit to send the bundle to. Follow up in writing to the address they give, from [legal@imxi.mt], with the bundle link and a short summary. Log the officer's name and time.
3. Do not send the bundle to anyone other than the police or the user. Do not post the bundle contents in Slack; post the alert id and the summary only.
4. Record every action in the alert notes. The admin dashboard logs who did what automatically; the notes are for the reasoning.

Step 4: protect the user inside the app

• If another user is named as the cause, immediately suspend that user pending review and preserve their messages and plans. Do not tell them why yet if it could escalate the situation offline.
• If the plan is ongoing, do not cancel it (that notifies everyone). Note it and review afterwards.
• Do not tell the other party that an alert was raised.

Step 5: close and follow up

• Close the alert only when the user confirms they are safe, or when the police have taken over, or after [24 hours] with no contact and no signs of ongoing danger (in which case note the reasoning and keep it on the daily review list).
• Send a follow up message the next day: are you okay, do you want to report the person, here are the support numbers.
• If a user was suspended in step 4, complete the moderation review within one working day using the Content policy.
• Review every alert at the weekly safety meeting. Look for patterns: repeat locations, repeat users, false alarms with a common cause in the app.

Data handling reminders

• Bundles are opened only from the admin dashboard. Never download them to a personal device.
• Never share bundle links outside the team and the police.
• Bundles are kept for three years, then deleted, unless there is an open case. Deletion is done by [the monthly retention job] and confirmed in the audit log.
• If a user asks what was in their bundle, send it to them within one month. If the bundle contains other people's messages, redact the parts that are not the user's own conversation before sending.

If the alert is a mistake or misuse

• Accidental presses: close the alert, reassure the user, no record beyond the alert itself.
• Repeated false alerts used to harass another user (for example naming someone in the note to get them suspended): treat under the Content policy as a bad faith report. Warn on the first occasion, suspend on the second.