HeatShield Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 8, 2026

HeatShield is a capstone research project (BS Information Technology, Adamson University) that warns construction workers and their supervisors about heat stress. This page explains what the HeatShield watch, the HeatShield worker app and the supervisor dashboard collect, why, and what you can ask us to do with it.

1. Data We Collect

• From the watch: heart rate, skin temperature, estimated body temperature, air temperature, humidity, heat index, and the watch's battery and charging status.
• Account details: your name and email address. Supervisors also have a password, which is stored only as a secure hash.
• Safety records: the alerts raised for you, when you or your supervisor acknowledged them, the site you are assigned to, and which watch is paired to you.
• Consent record: that you agreed to take part, and when.

We do not collect your location, photos, contacts or messages.

2. How Data Is Used

Your readings are checked against fixed heat-safety thresholds (STOP WORK, REST NOW, SEEK SHADE and HYDRATE). When a threshold is reached, your watch and phone alert you, and your supervisor's dashboard shows the alert and reads it aloud, including your name and site, so help reaches the right person quickly. Heather, the assistant in the app and dashboard, writes short safety advice from your latest readings using an AI model that runs on the HeatShield server.

The data is used only for heat-stress safety and for the capstone study. It is not sold or used for advertising.

3. App Permissions

• Notifications: to show heat alerts and hydration reminders.
• Camera: to scan the watch and site QR codes, with the flashlight for dark areas. No photos or video are saved.
• Bluetooth and Location: Android requires the Location permission to find nearby Bluetooth devices. It is used only to connect to your watch; your location is never recorded or sent.
• Display over other apps and lock-screen alerts: so a STOP WORK alert appears even when another app is open or the phone is locked.
• Battery optimisation exemption: so Android does not stop alerts in the background.

You can turn any of these off in your phone's settings, but alerts may then be missed.

4. Google Sign-In

Workers (in the app) and supervisors (on the dashboard) can sign in with Google. We receive only your name, email address and Google account ID, and use them only to sign you in.

5. Consent and Research Data

The HeatShield app asks for your agreement, and records the time you gave it, before any vitals leave your phone or watch. You can withdraw at any time by contacting the research team. Under the Philippine Data Privacy Act of 2012 (RA 10173) you may ask to access, correct or delete your data.

To support the capstone study, full-resolution readings (heart rate, skin temperature, estimated body temperature, air temperature and humidity, heat index, and battery status) are kept in a research archive in addition to the short live record the dashboard uses. The archive is used only for the study, is kept until the study and defense are complete, and is then deleted or anonymised. The exact deletion date is announced to participants before data collection begins.

6. Data Deletion

To have your account and readings deleted, email deleonharry26@gmail.com. We delete them from the HeatShield database within 7 days. Copies in the server's safety backups are removed automatically as those backups expire, within 14 days after that.