These terms apply when you take part in a search, exercise or training activity as a volunteer or guest using Meridian SAR (the app and website). The search is run by the organisation running the search (the "search organisation"), usually working with or for a controlling agency - the police, an emergency or civil defence service, a coastguard, or whichever authority has charge of search and rescue where you are.
By tapping "I agree" you confirm you have read and accept these terms. If you do not agree, do not join.
These terms do not replace any agreement, membership or induction you already have with the search organisation or the controlling agency, and they do not make you an employee, contractor, volunteer member or agent of anyone. If your organisation's own rules are stricter, follow those.
We record that you accepted: the version, your name, the time, your device and the network address you accepted from. This is kept as proof of acceptance.
The search is run by the search organisation and the controlling agency. They decide who searches, where, how, and when it starts and stops. They are responsible for the search, for tasking you, for your briefing and safety, and for the decisions made during it.
Blue Tomato Media, an Australian business, makes Meridian SAR. It supplies the software and nothing more. It does not run searches, does not task, direct, supervise, train, vet or insure searchers, is not present at the search, and has no role in deciding what happens during one. It is not a search and rescue organisation and is not an emergency service, in Australia or anywhere else.
Meridian SAR is used in more than one country. Whoever and wherever your search organisation is, it - not Blue Tomato Media - is the one running your search and responsible for it.
Nothing the app shows is an instruction from Blue Tomato Media. Areas, tasks, maps, messages, warnings and positions are entered and sent by your coordinators - the app only carries them. If what the app shows disagrees with what the coordinator or the controlling agency tells you, follow the coordinator and the agency.
So: questions and complaints about a search, how it was run, what you were asked to do, or your information in its record go to the search organisation or the controlling agency. Only faults in the software itself go to Blue Tomato Media.
You take part voluntarily and may stop at any time. Tell the coordinator when you leave, so nobody is left searching for you.
Searching can involve rough terrain, traffic, weather, animals, water, darkness and people in distress. You are responsible for your own safety, fitness, clothing, equipment and vehicle, and for not going beyond what you can safely do. Turn back or stop if conditions, light, weather or your own condition make going on unsafe.
You must be 18 or older, or taking part with the permission and supervision of a parent or guardian.
You take part at your own risk. To the extent permitted by law, you release the search organisation, the controlling agency, the other organisations taking part and Blue Tomato Media from liability for any injury, illness, loss or damage you suffer or cause while taking part, including to your phone, vehicle or property, and you accept the risks described above.
Blue Tomato Media supplies software only. To the extent permitted by law it is not liable for anything arising out of a search - how it was run, what you were asked to do, what happened to you or anyone else, or any decision made using the app - nor for the app being unavailable, delayed, or showing something wrong, incomplete or out of date. Its responsibility is limited to the software itself.
Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any right, guarantee or protection you have under the law that applies to you which cannot be excluded - for example consumer guarantees, or laws protecting volunteers and emergency service workers. Where such a right applies to the app and liability can lawfully be limited, Blue Tomato Media's liability is limited to supplying the service again or paying to have it supplied again. Some places do not allow such limits, in which case they do not apply to you.
Cover depends on who you are searching as, and on where the search takes place. If you are a registered volunteer member of an emergency service or accredited unit - such as a state emergency or civil defence service, a fire or rescue service, a coastguard or surf life saving body, a mountain, cave or lowland rescue team - and you are taking part as that member, on a task authorised by your unit or the controlling agency, you are in most places covered by your organisation's insurance and by whatever volunteer compensation scheme applies there. Your unit can tell you what that covers and what it does not; it varies considerably between countries.
If you are helping as a member of the public rather than as a registered member of such an organisation, you should not assume any of that cover applies to you - see the section below on searching as a member of the public.
In either case, taking part does not insure your phone, your vehicle or your own equipment, and cover generally depends on being on an authorised task - going outside your tasking, or searching after you have been stood down, may put you outside it.
If you injure someone or damage property through your own serious or deliberate fault, or by ignoring directions, you may be responsible for it yourself.
Only take part if you are fit to do so. Do not take part affected by alcohol or drugs, including medication that affects your driving, judgement or alertness.
Tell the coordinator before you set out about any medical condition, allergy, medication or limitation that could matter in an emergency, and who to contact if something happens to you. You decide what to tell them; they can only plan for what they know.
Carry enough water, food, clothing and battery for the conditions and the time you expect to be out. A phone with a flat battery cannot record your track or call for help.
Searching can be distressing. You may find a person who has died, or see things that stay with you. You can stop at any time, and you should tell the coordinator if you need to. Ask the search organisation or the controlling agency about support afterwards.
You may only take part if the search organisation or the controlling agency has asked or authorised you to. Having a mission code does not give you permission - the code is how you are registered once you have been accepted, not an invitation. Do not join a search you have not been asked to join, do not pass a code to anyone else, and do not turn up to a search area uninvited.
Being authorised to take part does not make you a trained searcher. If you have not been trained and accredited by a search and rescue organisation, you are a member of the public helping out, and you should expect to be given simple, low-risk tasks close to others, under the direction of the people running the search.
Self-deploying - searching on your own initiative, outside the tasking and area you were given - is not taking part in the search. It puts you and others at risk, can destroy evidence or scent, and means someone may have to search for you. You may be removed from the search for it, and you are on your own for anything that follows.
You may be searching alongside trained volunteers from emergency, rescue, coastguard, mountain rescue and similar units, who have training, equipment, insurance and accreditation that you do not. Do not assume their task is a safe task for you, and do not follow them into terrain, water or conditions you are not equipped for. Others helping may be members of the public like you - being with someone else is not the same as being with someone trained.
Do not search alone if you can avoid it. Stay within sight or radio or phone contact of others, stay in the area you were given, and go back when you are told to or when you have had enough.
The volunteer compensation schemes that cover registered emergency service volunteers generally do not extend to members of the public helping with a search, and being accepted onto one does not make you a member of that organisation. Some organisations do register and cover public volunteers for a particular search - do not assume it either way. Ask the coordinator what cover, if any, applies to you before you set out, and consider your own insurance.
If you are not comfortable with a task, say so. Refusing a task is always acceptable, and is safer than attempting it.
A search can involve several organisations at once - police, emergency and rescue services, other volunteer units, and members of the public - under one controlling agency.
Each organisation is responsible for its own members, their training, equipment, insurance and conduct. Your organisation, if you belong to one, remains responsible for you and its rules still apply to you.
The search organisation and the controlling agency are not responsible for the acts or omissions of another organisation's members, and no organisation taking part is responsible for yours. Blue Tomato Media is responsible for none of them.
Do not direct, task or supervise searchers from another organisation, and do not take direction from someone outside the chain of command you were given. If you are unsure who you answer to, ask your coordinator before you act.
Follow the directions of the coordinator and the controlling agency. Their directions come before anything the app shows.
Obey road rules. Do not use your phone while driving - a passenger should operate it.
Do not enter private property, buildings or closed areas without permission or direction. Do not approach anyone or anything that appears dangerous - report it and keep clear.
If you find the missing person, stay with them only if it is safe, and report straight away. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.
Meridian SAR helps coordinate a search. It is not an emergency service, not a safety device, and not a personal locator beacon. It must not be relied on for your safety, and nobody is watching your position to see whether you are in trouble.
Positions, maps, tracks, areas, messages and alerts can be wrong, delayed, incomplete or unavailable. GPS can be inaccurate under tree cover, in gullies, among buildings or in bad weather. Phones lose signal, run flat, get wet and break. Your position may not reach the coordinator at all, and may not be noticed if it does.
Do not go anywhere, or stay anywhere, on the strength of what the app shows - judge the ground in front of you. Offline maps are a convenience, not a substitute for a paper map, compass and the ability to use them.
Always carry another way to call for help. In an emergency, call your local emergency number - 000 in Australia, 111 in New Zealand, 911 in North America, 999 in the UK and Ireland, 112 across the EU and from most mobiles anywhere - and do not rely on a message in the app. Know the number where you are searching before you set out.
If the app stops working during a search, tell the coordinator and keep searching to your briefing. Note what you do so it can be recorded afterwards.
While you are joined to a search, the app records and sends your name, your location and track (including in the background while recording), how you are travelling, your phone's battery level and signal, an identifier for your device, and anything you report - finds, photos, notes, house reports and messages. Photos you take for a find carry the time, position and direction they were taken.
Your position is recorded only while you are recording a track. It is not recorded before you start, after you stop, or once the search has ended. Stopping recording stops it: you do not have to uninstall the app.
This is seen by the coordinators and the controlling agency, and may be shared with police, emergency services, coroners and courts. It is kept as part of the search record, which can be required by law, and is handled under the data protection and privacy law that applies where the search takes place and where the search organisation operates - for example the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) in Australia, the UK and EU GDPR, or your own country's equivalent.
The search organisation decides what is collected and how it is used - in data protection terms it is the controller of that information, and Blue Tomato Media processes it on its behalf. Requests to see, correct or erase your information, and any privacy complaint, go to the search organisation. Your rights over that information, and any limits on them, are those the law applying to you gives you.
Information may be stored or handled in a country other than your own. Where the law requires particular safeguards for that, the search organisation is responsible for ensuring they are in place.
The search record is kept by the search organisation for as long as it needs it, or as the controlling agency or the law requires - which for a search can be many years. Ask the search organisation about seeing or correcting your information, or about its retention and privacy policy; it, not Blue Tomato Media, decides what happens to the record of its search.
Your track is a record of where you were. Treat it as you would any record of your own movements, and be aware that it may be read by others as part of the search record.
You can stop recording at any time from the app. Information already sent stays part of the search record.
Photos, finds, notes and reports you make during the search belong to the search record, for the search organisation and the controlling agency. They may become evidence.
You must not keep copies, post them online or on social media, or give them to anyone else (including the media) - unless the controlling agency tells you that you may. Delete any copies outside the app when asked.
Information about the missing person, their family, the search and anyone you meet (such as people at houses, their details and circumstances) is confidential. Use it only for the search, and do not discuss or publish it.
Do not speak to the media about the search. Refer them to the controlling agency.
You may meet the missing person's family, residents, landholders and members of the public. Be courteous and calm. You represent the search organisation and the controlling agency.
Do not question, record or photograph people beyond what the search asks of you, and do not accept anything of value.
You may be tasked to search a property, its grounds, sheds and outbuildings. Only do so where the owner or occupier has given permission, or the controlling agency has directed or authorised it, and only within what was agreed - the permission may cover the yard and sheds but not inside the house. Ask the coordinator if you are unsure of its extent rather than deciding yourself.
Permission can be withdrawn at any time. If the owner or occupier asks you to stop or leave, stop and leave straight away, however the search is going, and report it to the coordinator.
Searching a property is a search for the missing person and nothing else. Do not open drawers, cupboards, containers or vehicles that could not hold the person, do not go through belongings, and do not look at or report anything unrelated to the search. If you see something that appears to be a crime or an immediate danger, withdraw and report it to the coordinator - do not investigate it.
Record house and property visits in the app as you are asked to, so the coordinator knows what has been covered and nobody is doorknocked twice. Note anything the next team needs to know before they walk up to that door - a dog, a hostile occupier, a hazard. Keep those notes factual and about the search; they are part of the search record and others will read them.
If you find the missing person, or signs of them, do not touch or move anything you do not have to. Report it straight away and wait for direction - a scene can be evidence.
If someone is distressed, aggressive or you feel unsafe, withdraw and report it. Do not attempt to manage it yourself.
The app runs on your own phone, using your own data and battery. You are responsible for your phone plan's costs. Recording in the background and downloading maps use battery and data.
Keep your join code, account and device to yourself. Do not let anyone else use the app as you, and do not join a search you were not asked to join. Tell the coordinator if your phone is lost or stolen while you are joined to a search.
Do not attempt to interfere with the app, the website or the servers, to reach information about searches you are not part of, to copy or extract data beyond your own use of the app, or to use the app other than for taking part in the search.
The app may be updated, changed or unavailable at any time. Keep it updated: an old version may not record or send correctly.
Training activities and games are run the same way. Everything above applies, including road rules and how you treat people you meet - no game is worth a risk.
Training uses realistic but fictional missing persons and scenarios. Do not report a training scenario as a real incident, and do not post about it in a way that could be mistaken for a real search.
You can leave a search at any time. Tell the coordinator first, stop recording, and make your way back safely.
The coordinator may stand you down or remove you from a search at any time, including for your own safety, and may withdraw your access to the app. You must stop searching and follow their directions if they do.
Not keeping to these terms - particularly about confidentiality, photos, safety and directions - may mean you are removed from this and future searches, and may be reported to the controlling agency. Serious matters may be dealt with by police or under the law.
These terms may change. You will be asked to accept the new version the next time you join a search. The version and date are shown at the top, and the current terms are always at meridiansar.com/terms.php.
Meridian SAR is made and supplied by Blue Tomato Media, an Australian business, from Australia. Your use of the app and website, and anything between you and Blue Tomato Media, is governed by the law of Victoria, Australia, and the courts there have jurisdiction - though if the law applying where you are gives you rights or a venue that cannot be contracted out of, those still apply.
The search itself is a different matter: it is run under the law of the country, state or territory where it takes place, and under the rules of the controlling agency there. Everything about the conduct of the search - directions, safety, volunteer status, insurance and compensation, privacy and the search record, and what may be published - follows that local law, not Australian law.
If anything in these terms conflicts with the law applying where the search takes place, or with the directions of the controlling agency, that law and those directions come first and the rest of these terms still apply.
If part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies.
Questions about a search, your information in its record, or a complaint about how a search was run: ask its coordinator or the search organisation. About the Meridian SAR app itself: [email protected].