Safety

Who is in the room

• Everybody here is 18 or older.

  We ask when you were born at sign-up and refuse the account if it puts you under 18. It is checked in the database, not in the app, so a modified app cannot get past it.

• If you are 18, you cannot put out a Pub / patio beat.

  British Columbia's drinking age is 19. The rule is checked in the database when the beat is sent, not in the app, so a modified app cannot get past it.

• Every account is tied to a working phone number.

  Signing in means receiving a code on a number that works. The number is what makes a ban mean something: we keep a one-way hash of it after an account closes, so a banned account cannot come back the next morning on the same number.

The shape of a group

• A room is never two people. Three is the floor.

  Not a guideline and not a target: a room with fewer than three members is not a room, and the database refuses to create one. A room forms at four so that it can lose one and still be a group.

• If a room drops below three, it stops being a room.

  Its chat freezes and it goes back to forming. Nobody is left in a two-person chat wondering what it is now.

• Nobody can see where you are. There is no map in this product.

  Your position is snapped to a 500-metre grid, with an offset that is yours alone, before anything is stored. The precise position is never written down, and no member is ever shown where another member is.

When something is wrong

• You can block somebody, and they are never told.

  A block is silent and permanent. You will not be put in a room with them again, in either direction. It survives their account being deleted, because it is carried on the hash of their number.

• "I did not feel safe" is a reason on its own. You never have to explain it.

  It is one of the reasons on the report sheet. It blocks the person, it reaches a human being, and it needs no story attached. Two separate people saying it about the same person within 30 days limits that account until a person has read it.

• Leaving is always allowed and never held against you.

  You can leave a room at any moment, without a reason and without telling anybody why. Leaving without naming a person blocks the others in that room from you for 30 days rather than forever, because they may have done nothing wrong.

• Every report reaches a person, and a serious one pages that person at any hour.

  A report of sexual misconduct, a threat, violence, or somebody under 18 suspends the account while we look and pages the one person who runs CommonBeat, at any hour. A page is not a promise of an answer at night: the service level below says when a serious report is acknowledged. A page nobody acknowledges is logged and stays on the moderation console. It is never dropped.

• When you file a report, we take a snapshot at that moment.

  The message, the room, and who was in it. It is kept for 12 months. Chat messages are deleted 48 hours after a room closes, so without it a report filed later is one person remembering against another.

What we do not do

• We do not arrange, host or supervise meetings.

  CommonBeat puts you in a small group with a text chat, and stops there. There are no hosts, no chosen places and no check-ins. If a group decides to meet, that is its own arrangement.

• We do not vet or background-check members.

  We have no access to criminal records and we do not buy identity data. Nobody in a room with you has been cleared by anyone. Everything above makes a stranger a slightly better known stranger. None of it makes them safe.

• There are no profile photos, and nobody checks a face.

  Photo upload is switched off at this stage, and selfie checks with it. The people in a room with you show a first name, not a face, and nobody has checked that the name is theirs.

• We do not screen chat for harassment, threats or sexual content.

  The only automatic check on what a message says refuses a phone number, an email address, a handle, a link or a payment request. Anything else said in a room reaches a person when somebody reports it.

• We do not introduce two people to each other.

  There are no one-to-one rooms, no way to browse people, and no way to ask for a particular person. A room is a group or it does not open.

• Women-only rooms are not part of this version.

  The rule is built and tested in the database, and the private gender answer is collected and never shown. It is not switched on in this version, and we would rather say that here than list a room that is not offered.

• We are not an emergency service.

  If something is happening now, call 911. Tell us second. The service level below is what we promise about reading and acting, not about arriving.

How quickly we answer

A serious report is acknowledged within 60 minutes between 09:00 and 22:00, and by 10:00 otherwise. Everything else within 48 hours.

Urgent means a report of sexual misconduct, a threat, violence, or somebody under 18.

• Between 09:00 and 22:00 local time, we acknowledge one within 60 minutes. It pages the one person who runs CommonBeat, at any hour. A page that goes unanswered is logged and shown on the moderation console, and is not passed to anybody else, because there is nobody else.
• Outside those hours, by 10:00. We would rather tell you that than promise a night we cannot keep.
• Everything else is answered within 48 hours.

Acknowledged means a person has read it and started. It does not mean it is resolved. A serious report suspends the account it is about while we look, because leaving somebody in rooms for the hours a decision takes is the wrong way round.