PRIVACY POLICY

PROJECT SHIELD PRIVACY POLICY

Project SHIELD LLC • Project SHIELD Initiative

Last Updated: October 22, 2026

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Project SHIELD LLC ("Project SHIELD," "we," "us," or "our") respects the privacy of firefighters, first responders, public-safety personnel, website visitors, and other individuals who interact with Project SHIELD.

Project SHIELD is a firefighter-driven wearable technology initiative designed to support health, wellness, awareness, recovery, and operational readiness. Protecting the privacy and autonomy of the individual first responder is a core principle of Project SHIELD.

This Privacy Policy explains how Project SHIELD may collect, access, use, store, disclose, and protect information through the Project SHIELD website, applications, wearable-device integrations, research activities, and related services.

1. Information We May Collect
Website and Contact Information. When an individual contacts Project SHIELD, we may receive information such as name, email address, organization or department, and information voluntarily included in a message or inquiry.

We use this information to respond to inquiries and conduct legitimate Project SHIELD business. Submission of a contact form does not automatically enroll an individual in marketing or promotional communications.

Wearable, Health, Wellness, and Activity Information. When expressly authorized by the user and supported by the applicable device or service, Project SHIELD may access or process information such as heart rate, activity, steps, sleep, stress, recovery-related metrics, Body Battery, Pulse Ox, respiration, and other compatible health, wellness, activity, or device-derived information.

The specific information available may depend on the user's device, permissions, Garmin services, Project SHIELD features, and future integrations.

2. Garmin and Wearable Data
Project SHIELD is being developed for integration with compatible Garmin devices and services.

Access to Garmin-derived user information will be based on the user's authorization and the permissions applicable to the relevant Garmin service or integration.

Project SHIELD will access and use Garmin-derived information only for purposes authorized by the user and necessary to provide the applicable Project SHIELD functionality.

Data provided to Project SHIELD through an application or integration is provided to Project SHIELD and is subject to this Privacy Policy. Garmin is not responsible or liable for data submitted to or independently processed by Project SHIELD.

Garmin may separately collect, process, and store information through Garmin devices, Garmin Connect, and other Garmin services according to Garmin's own terms and privacy practices.

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Current Project SHIELD Data Practices. Project SHIELD uses cloud-based backend infrastructure to receive, process, and store authorized Garmin-derived health, wellness, activity, device, shift-context, and related Project SHIELD information as necessary to provide Project SHIELD functionality. This may include Garmin Health API data delivered to Project SHIELD after a user authorizes the integration.

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Project SHIELD currently uses Supabase as a cloud infrastructure and database service provider. Supabase may process or store Project SHIELD-controlled information on Project SHIELD's behalf for hosting, database, server-side processing, and related technical functions. Project SHIELD does not authorize Supabase to use Garmin-derived user information for independent advertising or data-broker purposes.

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Project SHIELD may also retain limited information locally on compatible devices where needed for watch or mobile application functionality. Information handled independently by Garmin remains subject to Garmin's own systems and privacy practices.

3. Individual Control of Health and Wellness Data
Project SHIELD is designed around the principle that an individual's health, wellness, biometric, activity, and recovery information should remain under that individual's control.

Participation in Project SHIELD through an employer, department, agency, research partner, or other organization does not by itself authorize that organization to access an individual's identifiable health or wellness information.

Project SHIELD does not automatically disclose identifiable individual health, wellness, biometric, or recovery information to a user's employer, fire department, agency, command staff, chief officers, supervisors, coworkers, family members, insurers, or other third parties.

Where additional sharing or use is offered, the user will be informed of the applicable purpose and will be given an opportunity to provide any consent or authorization required for that use.

Project SHIELD is intended to support individual awareness - not individual surveillance.

4. How We Use Information
Subject to the user's permissions and the functionality being used, Project SHIELD may use information to:

• provide requested application features and functionality;

• present health, wellness, activity, and recovery information to the individual user;

• help users understand personal baseline, on-shift, and post-shift patterns;

• provide user-facing wellness, hydration, recovery, readiness, or similar information and notifications;

• maintain, secure, troubleshoot, support, and improve Project SHIELD applications and services;

• respond to inquiries and conduct legitimate business operations;

• support research where appropriate consent and privacy protections are in place; and

• develop future functionality consistent with this Privacy Policy and applicable user permissions.

Project SHIELD will not use Garmin-derived user information for materially different purposes without providing appropriate notice and obtaining consent when required.

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5. Personal Baselines, Shift Data, and Recovery

A purpose of Project SHIELD is to help firefighters and other participating first responders better understand how occupational demands may affect their individual wellness and recovery.

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Project SHIELD functionality may allow users to compare personal baseline information with information associated with shifts and post-shift recovery.

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Project SHIELD may associate operational information - such as shift periods, call timing, or incident-related periods - with biometric and recovery trends to better understand the effects of emergency-response work and support education, awareness, and recovery.

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Such functionality is implemented subject to appropriate privacy protections and user permissions.

6. Department and Organizational Access
Project SHIELD does not treat participation in an employer- or department-supported program as blanket consent for command staff or an employer to view an individual's identifiable health information.

 

Future Project SHIELD services may provide department-level, organizational, aggregated, or summary information when appropriate. Any functionality involving identifiable individual information will require appropriate disclosure and user consent or authorization.

The availability of Project SHIELD through a department or agency does not by itself grant that organization ownership of or unrestricted access to an individual's health or wellness information.

7. Research and De-Identified Information
Project SHIELD may in the future support research intended to improve understanding of firefighter and first-responder health, occupational stress, recovery, wellness, and related public-safety issues.

Where reasonably possible, Project SHIELD's preferred approach is to use de-identified and/or aggregated information for research rather than directly identifiable individual information.

Because combinations of biometric, operational, temporal, or other information may sometimes increase the possibility of re-identification, Project SHIELD will not represent information as anonymous unless the applicable method and circumstances reasonably support that characterization.

If a research activity requires identifiable individual information, additional disclosure, consent, authorization, and other safeguards may be required for that particular research activity.

Participation in optional Project SHIELD research will not constitute blanket consent for unrelated research uses.

8. Consent and Withdrawal
Where Project SHIELD relies on a user's consent for an optional use of information, users may withdraw that consent.

Withdrawal will apply to future collection, use, or sharing governed by that consent as applicable.

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Users may disconnect or withdraw authorization for a supported Garmin integration through available Garmin or Project SHIELD controls, where applicable, and may contact Project SHIELD for assistance with Project SHIELD-controlled information.

Project SHIELD will delete or cease retaining Garmin-derived user information when required following withdrawal of consent or a valid deletion request.

In some circumstances, information that has already been legitimately incorporated into completed analyses, reports, or genuinely de-identified or aggregated datasets may no longer be reasonably capable of being associated with or removed on behalf of a particular individual.

Any study-specific or legally required consent terms may provide additional information concerning withdrawal.

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9. Access, Correction, Export, Retention, and Deletion

Users may contact Project SHIELD to request access to Project SHIELD-controlled personal information, request correction of inaccurate information, request a copy or export of information where applicable, request deletion, or ask questions about how their information is processed.

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Project SHIELD will take reasonable steps to verify the identity and authority of a requester before fulfilling a request involving identifiable information.

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Project SHIELD will not retain personal information longer than reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, except where the individual has expressly authorized longer retention or retention is otherwise permitted or required by applicable law.

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Garmin-derived information stored in Project SHIELD's cloud infrastructure will be retained only as reasonably necessary to provide authorized Project SHIELD functionality, support legitimate operational or security needs, satisfy applicable legal obligations, or support separately authorized research.

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Project SHIELD will update applicable retention practices as the service evolves.

10. No Sale of Personal Health Data
Project SHIELD does not sell or rent identifiable health, wellness, biometric, activity, or recovery information.

Project SHIELD does not provide identifiable user health information to advertisers, data brokers, or insurance companies for advertising, behavioral profiling, or commercial data-broker purposes.

Garmin-derived user information will not be sold, rented, or transferred in violation of applicable Garmin developer requirements.

11. Alerts and Individual Privacy
Project SHIELD wellness or health-related features are designed primarily to provide information to the individual user.

Project SHIELD does not currently automatically transmit an individual's identifiable biometric or wellness alerts to employers, departments, command staff, family members, or other third parties.

If Project SHIELD later offers an optional information-sharing feature, the applicable sharing and consent process will be disclosed to the user.

Project SHIELD is not an emergency-response service and should not be relied upon as a substitute for emergency medical evaluation, professional medical care, or an emergency communication system.

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12. Security

Project SHIELD takes the privacy and security of user information seriously and uses reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards appropriate to the nature of the information.

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Project SHIELD uses service providers, including Supabase, to support cloud hosting, database, and server-side processing. Project SHIELD seeks to limit service-provider access and processing to what is reasonably necessary to provide those technical services and requires applicable providers handling Project SHIELD user data to maintain appropriate protections.

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No electronic system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

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Project SHIELD will update its security and privacy practices as its technical infrastructure and data-processing activities evolve.

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