Responsible Use Policy

1. Purpose

Vantage is a Visium company. Visium operates the Vantage website and services. In this policy, “Visium,” “we,” “us” and “our” mean Visium, and “Vantage” means the Vantage products and services.

Vantage gives rescue and law enforcement teams room-by-room awareness of a structure: whether a room is occupied, whether someone is moving or still and breathing, a coarse head count, and a confidence score on every reading. That awareness can help save lives. It could also be misused. This policy sets the conditions under which Vantage may be used. Every agreement to use Vantage requires compliance with it.

2. What Vantage does not do

Vantage does not produce images. It does not produce audio. It does not identify anyone. It reports whether a room is occupied, movement or stillness and breathing, a coarse count, and a confidence for each reading. Using Vantage to try to identify a person is prohibited.

3. Who may use Vantage

Vantage is available only to:

• authorized public safety agencies, meaning fire, rescue, urban search and rescue, emergency management and law enforcement agencies; and
• qualified facility operators, for buildings they own or operate.

Vantage is not sold to private individuals. It is offered in the United States. Any use outside the United States, or by or for a non-U.S. government, requires our prior written approval and an export review. Within an agency or facility, only personnel the organization has authorized may operate Vantage.

4. A recorded basis for every session

No session opens without a recorded basis. The operator selects one of four bases and records its details before anything is read.

1. Warrant. The court, case number, address and time window are recorded.
2. Consent. Written consent from a person with authority over the premises is recorded.
3. Emergency. There is an imminent threat to life. The incident commander is named, and a supervisor reviews the session afterward.
4. Training. The session takes place on the agency’s own facilities, with participants who agreed to take part. Training records are kept separate from operational records.

Our governance model describes how authorization works in practice.

5. Sealed records

Every session produces an append-only, time-stamped record. The record is sealed when the session closes and cannot be edited afterward. Every access to a record is logged. See sealed records for more detail.

6. Safety principles

Vantage readings are decision support. They inform trained people. They do not replace judgment, procedure or a search.

• A reading must never be the sole basis for a decision to use force.
• A reading must never be the sole basis for ending a search.
• A “no read” must never be treated as clear. It means Vantage could not produce a reading for that room, and the room remains unknown.
• “Confirmed empty” is a reading, not a clearance. Teams still clear or search every room under their own procedures.
• Every reading carries a confidence score. A low-confidence reading should be weighed as one.

Our Limits page explains where Vantage is confident and where it is not.

7. Prohibited uses

No one may use Vantage, or allow anyone else to use it:

• to open or run any session without a recorded basis;
• outside the terms of the recorded basis, for example beyond the address or time window of a warrant;
• to monitor or target any person because of lawful protest, religious practice, political views, press activity, or membership in a protected class;
• to attempt to identify any individual, including by combining Vantage readings with other information for that purpose;
• for personal use, or on behalf of a private individual;
• to resell, lend, sublicense or otherwise transfer access without our written permission;
• outside the United States, or by or for a non-U.S. government, without our written approval;
• to harass, stalk or intimidate anyone;
• to tamper with, alter, hide or delete session records or access logs, or to bypass the authorization or record controls; or
• in any way contrary to federal, state, local or tribal law, or to a court order.

8. Agency responsibilities

Each agency and facility operator that uses Vantage is responsible for:

• deciding, with its counsel, whether a basis is lawful for each session;
• limiting use to personnel it has authorized;
• supervising operators, including the review that follows every emergency session;
• following its own policies and all applicable law; and
• keeping session records intact and available to its oversight bodies as its law and policies require.

9. Facility operators

A qualified facility operator may use Vantage only in buildings it owns or operates, and only for safety, emergency planning and emergency response. In addition to the rest of this policy, each facility operator must:

• post clear notice in each building where Vantage may be used;
• follow every law that applies to monitoring in its buildings, including laws on workplace monitoring, health information and tenant privacy;
• not use Vantage to monitor employees’ work, conduct or attendance, or to make decisions about anyone’s employment, housing, education, health care or benefits; and
• not read residential units, guest rooms, dormitory rooms, patient rooms, restrooms, locker rooms or similar private spaces that other people occupy, except under an emergency basis when there is an imminent threat to life.

10. Enforcement

If we believe Vantage has been used in violation of this policy, we may:

• suspend or end access, for an individual operator or for an entire agency or facility;
• notify the agency’s leadership; and
• cooperate with oversight bodies, such as inspectors general, civilian oversight boards and courts.

We may also take any other step that our agreement or the law allows.

11. Reporting misuse

If you believe Vantage has been misused, write to legal@vantagesensing.com. You do not need to be a customer, and you may report anonymously. Include what you can: the agency, the date, the location and what happened. If you report anonymously, we may not be able to follow up with you.

If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.

12. Review of this policy

We review this policy at least once a year, and sooner when the law or the product changes. The effective date at the top of this page shows the current version.