Last updated: August 2, 2026
Beacon: Scam Protection ("Beacon," "the app," "the service") is a scam-message detection tool, available through our website, mobile app, and SMS text service. This policy explains what information we collect, how it's used, and your choices.
Message text you submit for analysis. When you paste, type, or text a message for Beacon to analyze — whether through the website, the app, or by forwarding a text to our SMS number — that text is sent to our backend server to generate a scam/spam prediction. This message text, along with the prediction and which model produced it, is stored in our database. It is not linked to your name, email, or any other personal identifier.
Messages you flag as incorrectly predicted. If you indicate that a prediction was wrong, we store that message text, the original prediction, the correct label you provided, and which model made the prediction — so we can use it to improve future versions of our detection models. This is also not linked to any personal identifier.
Messages you choose to report to the community forum. If you submit a detected message to the public forum, that message text, its predicted category, and confidence score are stored and displayed publicly to other users of the app, along with anonymous upvote/downvote counts.
Anonymous device identifiers. To support voting and flagging on the community forum, the app uses Firebase's anonymous authentication, which assigns your device a random identifier. This identifier is not linked to your name, email, or any other personally identifying information, and cannot be used to determine who you are.
Flag reports. If you flag a forum post as inappropriate, the reason you provide is stored so we can review and remove content that violates our community standards.
Phone numbers, for the SMS text service only. If you use Beacon by texting our SMS number, we receive your phone number as part of that message (this is a standard part of how SMS works). We use your phone number solely to send you the single reply containing your message's scam/safe assessment. We do not sell, share, or rent your phone number to any third party, including for marketing purposes. Your phone number is stored only to support the text-reply function and basic abuse prevention, and is not linked to any other identifying information.
Beacon does not collect your location, contacts, photos, health data, financial information, or browsing history. We do not use advertising identifiers, and we do not sell or share your data with advertisers or data brokers.
Beacon offers a text-based version of the service. You opt in simply by texting a message to our number — there is no separate sign-up step, and we never send a message to a number that hasn't first texted us.
Message text submitted for detection, and messages flagged as incorrect predictions, are retained indefinitely to support ongoing model evaluation and improvement, unless you contact us to request deletion (see Contact, below). Reported forum posts remain visible until removed following a flag review. Phone numbers from the SMS service are retained only as long as needed to support the service and basic abuse prevention.
Beacon uses Firebase (a Google service) for anonymous authentication and to store forum data, and Twilio to send and receive text messages for the SMS service. These providers' own privacy practices apply to data they process on our behalf — see Google's Privacy Policy and Twilio's Privacy Policy.
Beacon is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at this same URL with a revised "Last updated" date.
Questions about this policy or your data can be sent to: ri.kulkarni02@gmail.com