Terms of Service

1. Who we are

Beacon is an offline-first progressive web app (PWA) for NDT inspection reporting, used by inspection professionals and organisations. Beacon is operated by the service provider contactable at siowenson@hotmail.com. These Terms govern your access to and use of the Beacon website, app, and related services (together, the Service).

How we handle personal data is described in our Privacy Policy.

2. Acceptance

By creating an account, signing in, inviting others, or otherwise using Beacon, you agree to these Terms. If you use Beacon on behalf of an organisation, you confirm that you have authority to bind that organisation, and you means both you and that organisation.

If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

3. Who may use Beacon

Beacon is a business tool for professional NDT inspection work. It is not a consumer product and is not intended for children. You must be at least 18 and using Beacon in a professional or organisational capacity.

You are responsible for ensuring that your use complies with your employer's procedures, client contracts, and any applicable inspection standards or regulations.

4. The service

Beacon helps inspection teams capture inspection information, photos, drawings, and report text; work offline in the field; sync when a connection is available; and export PDF reports. Features may include Google or email-link sign-in, company workspaces with roles and invites, templates, and a QR code on exported PDFs that links to a public authenticity check.

We may add, change, or withdraw features. We do not promise that every feature will remain available in its current form.

5. Accounts and workspaces

Access is through Firebase Authentication. You may sign in with a Google account or a secure email sign-in link. You must provide accurate details and keep your sign-in method under your control.

Work is organised in company or team workspaces. Owners and admins may invite members, assign roles (such as owner, admin, or member), and control who can see or edit workspace content. You must only invite people who are authorised to access that organisation's inspection data.

You are responsible for activity under your account and for devices used to access Beacon. Tell us promptly if you believe an account or invite has been misused.

6. Customer content

Inspection content you or your organisation put into Beacon — including client and site names, equipment details, findings, photos, drawings, signatures, and report text — belongs to the customer organisation. Beacon does not claim ownership of that content.

You grant Beacon a non-exclusive licence to host, store, process, transmit, display, back up, and generate PDFs from that content solely as needed to provide, maintain, secure, and improve the Service, including offline sync and the public authenticity check described below.

Your organisation remains responsible for the confidentiality, accuracy, and lawful use of client and site data it enters. Do not put data into Beacon unless you have the right to do so.

7. Offline use and sync

Beacon is designed to work offline. Inspection data, photos, drawings, and related files may sit on the device in browser storage (including IndexedDB and localStorage) until they can sync to Firebase when the device is online.

• Unsynced work can be lost if a device is reset, damaged, or cleared.
• Another person with access to the device may be able to see locally stored data.
• Sync depends on network conditions, account access, and workspace permissions.

You and your organisation should manage device access, backups, and retention according to your own policies. We are not responsible for loss of data that has not successfully synced, except to the extent we cannot exclude that responsibility under English law.

8. PDF export and authenticity checks

Exported PDFs may include a QR code linking to a public page at /verify/{reportId}. That page is an authenticity and integrity check against registered report metadata (such as a stored hash, report identifier, inspector name, and timestamp). It confirms whether the registered export record still matches what was stored — not that the inspection in the field was complete, correct, or performed to a particular standard.

The verify page is not a public photo gallery or an open portal to all inspection media. Photo and drawing files are not published there. Anyone with the link may see the limited registered metadata shown on that page.

9. Professional responsibility

Beacon does not replace professional judgement, company procedures, applicable inspection standards, client specifications, or statutory duties. The qualified inspector and the responsible organisation remain responsible for the accuracy, completeness, and suitability of each inspection and exported report.

You must check inspection data and exported reports before issuing them to a client or relying on them for safety, commercial, or regulatory decisions.

10. Acceptable use

You must not:

• use Beacon for anything unlawful, deceptive, or outside professional inspection work;
• probe, disrupt, or overload the Service, or attempt unauthorised access;
• share login details, or invite people who should not see workspace data;
• upload malware or content you do not have the right to use;
• misrepresent a PDF, QR code, or verify-page result as a guarantee of field accuracy;
• use Beacon in a way that puts other people's safety or confidential client data at unreasonable risk.

11. No warranty

Beacon is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We take reasonable care to keep the Service useful for field reporting, but we do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of data loss. Except as required by law, we give no implied warranties of satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

We do not warrant that any PDF, hash, or verify-page result proves the underlying inspection was correctly performed.

12. Limitation of liability

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded under the law of England and Wales.

Subject to that, we are not liable for: loss of profits, business, contracts, goodwill, or anticipated savings; loss or corruption of data (including unsynced device data); or any indirect or consequential loss, whether arising in contract, tort (including negligence), or otherwise.

Our total liability for any claim arising out of or in connection with the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the fees you paid us for Beacon in the 12 months before the claim, and (b) £100. This cap is intended to be a reasonable allocation of risk for a software tool that does not replace professional inspection judgement.

You remain responsible for your inspection work, client deliverables, and compliance with standards and contracts.

13. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or restrict access if we reasonably believe these Terms have been breached, if we need to protect the Service or other users, or if required by law. We will try to give notice where it is practical to do so.

You may stop using Beacon at any time. Workspace owners may request deletion of account or workspace data by emailing us. Some copies may remain in backups for a limited period, and we may retain records where we must do so by law.

Provisions that by their nature should survive (including ownership of customer content, the licence needed to wind down the Service, disclaimers, liability limits, and governing law) continue after termination.

14. Changes

We may update these Terms as Beacon develops. The "Last updated" date at the top will change when we do. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised Terms. If you do not agree, you should stop using the Service and contact us about your account.

15. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, except that we may seek injunctive or equivalent relief in any jurisdiction if needed to protect the Service or customer data.

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms: siowenson@hotmail.com.