The Emergency tab holds the most sensitive things in Pack Hiker. It has other people's phone numbers and email addresses, beacon IDs, and whatever you put in Notes & medical: allergies, medications, the condition you'd rather a rescuer knew about. Those details are what make the safety brief worth sending, and they're also why that tab has had the most thought put into it.
This update is about two questions: who sees those details, and for how long.
Saying it plainly, up front
The Emergency tab now opens with a short note explaining exactly where your details go. Every member of the hike can see the page. More importantly, each member's safety brief and check-in alerts carry the whole pack's details. So what you add reaches every member's emergency contacts, not just yours. It's also printed in the hike's PDF exports.
That has always been how it works, and it's how it should work: if your group is overdue, someone's partner needs to be able to ring your partner. But it's easy to miss. The note covers:
- Notes & medical is shared the same way, so only add health details you're comfortable sharing that widely.
- Your emergency contacts are other people. Before you add your mum, your partner or your mate's details, make sure they know where those details go and have agreed to it.
Fold the note away once you've read it and it stays folded for that hike.
Deleted when the trip is over
Emergency details exist for the trip. Once everyone is home they serve no purpose, and keeping someone's phone number and health information indefinitely only creates risk. A closed hike is read-only, so until now there was also no way to remove them from one.
So now a hike's emergency contacts, PLBs and Notes & medical are deleted two weeks after the hike ends, or as soon as the owner closes it. The Emergency tab tells you the exact date. Hikes that are already closed, or ended more than two weeks ago, have had theirs removed.
Copies saved on your profile aren't touched, so Load from profile still works for your next trip.
Why two weeks, and not the day after
The post-hike check-in is the safety feature that alerts your emergency contacts if you don't check in after the hike. Deleting their details while it might still need them would defeat the point, so the timing is built around it:
- Your check-in deadline can be up to 6 days after the hike ends.
- If you miss it, repeat alerts can continue for 7 days.
- So the last possible alert goes out on day 13, and the details are deleted on day 14.
There's also a safety check on top of the timing. Nothing is deleted while a check-in on the hike could still send an alert. And if your contacts were alerted and you haven't checked in yet, your contacts are kept until you do, so the "they're safe" email still reaches them.
Changing the dates
A check-in deadline is a fixed time. If the hike's dates moved under it, contacts could be alerted while you're still walking, or alerted late. So while anyone's check-in is armed, the hike's dates can't be changed: turn it off, change the dates, then set it again.
When the dates do change, the chat lets everyone know. Any safety brief sent before the change is marked out of date on the Emergency tab, because your contacts are holding the old dates, and you'll get a reminder to send it again before you leave.
The details
The Privacy Policy (section 7) now lists the new deletion rule, and the full detail is in Emergency contacts and the safety brief.