Rules & Safety

Your safety and the safety of others must always come before recording.

• Never cross a police, fire, emergency or safety cordon.
• Follow instructions from emergency workers immediately, even when this means stopping the recording or leaving the area.
• Stay far enough away to leave safely without having to cross the incident scene.
• Always know where your nearest safe exit or escape route is.
• Never place yourself between a hazard and your only way out.
• Do not move closer simply to obtain a better image.

• Stay near the edge of the crowd rather than moving into the center.
• Keep access to an exit route and avoid becoming trapped against barriers, walls, vehicles or other people.
• Move away immediately if the crowd becomes compressed, aggressive or unpredictable.
• Do not argue with participants, police officers or security personnel.

• Stay well away from flames, smoke, fumes, damaged containers and unidentified substances.
• Move away from smoke or fumes, preferably upwind or crosswind, and follow the instructions of emergency services.
• Never position yourself uphill from a wildfire or in a location where the fire could cut off your escape route.
• Do not enter an evacuation or exclusion zone.
• Do not touch suspicious substances, debris or contaminated objects.

• Do not enter damaged or unstable buildings.
• Do not walk or drive through moving or floodwater.
• Stay away from fallen power lines, damaged utility equipment and water that may be electrically charged.
• Be alert for falling objects, unstable structures, broken glass and aftershocks.
• Leave the area when instructed to evacuate.

• Do not stand or walk on an active road, traffic lane or railway line to record.
• Avoid entering the shoulder or roadside unless it is clearly safe and legally permitted.
• Stay behind safety barriers whenever possible.
• Watch for traffic that may still be moving around the incident.
• Do not approach damaged vehicles, leaking fuel, hazardous loads or unstable debris.
• Never record while driving, cycling or operating a vehicle.
• Park legally and safely before using your phone.

If you hear gunfire or an explosion, seek protection immediately. Do not remain exposed in order to record.

• Move away from windows, balconies, doors and other exposed positions facing the incident.
• Take cover behind a substantial structure and follow official emergency instructions.
• Do not approach unexploded objects, abandoned weapons, ammunition, suspicious packages or damaged military equipment.
• Do not touch or move anything that may be explosive.
• At night or in an area of armed conflict, do not use a flash, camera light or bright screen when it could reveal your position.
• Do not publish the live position, movement or operational details of security personnel, emergency workers, victims or people sheltering from danger.
• Leave the area as soon as a safe route is available.

If anyone threatens, confronts or tries to attack you:

• stop recording;
• put your phone away;
• create distance;
• and leave without arguing or provoking the person.

Do not risk a confrontation to protect a recording. Contact the emergency services when you are in danger or believe a crime has occurred.

If someone is in immediate danger, helping them safely or contacting the emergency services must take priority over recording.

Do not obstruct trained responders or attempt a rescue that would place you or others in greater danger.

• Never record while driving, cycling or operating machinery.
• Do not walk backwards while looking at the screen.
• Stop moving before framing or checking a recording.
• Do not climb onto unstable structures, roofs, vehicles, barriers or other unsafe surfaces to obtain a better view.
• Do not use equipment in a way that prevents you from remaining aware of your surroundings.

Do not pretend to be a police officer, firefighter, medical professional, emergency worker, public official or other authority.

You may describe yourself as a citizen journalist or RiiS Reporter, but do not claim to hold official press credentials, professional accreditation or special access unless you genuinely have them.

Using RiiS or publishing a report through RiiS does not provide press credentials, official status, special access or permission to enter private or restricted areas.

Before publishing, consider whether the report could expose your identity, habits, workplace, home, daily route or relationships within your own community.

Your RiiS profile name is optional. However, removing your name does not guarantee anonymity. Your face, voice, surroundings, location, clothing or other details may still identify you.

Do not publish when doing so could expose you or someone else to retaliation, harassment, discrimination or physical danger.

These recommendations are general precautions. They cannot cover every situation, location or type of emergency and do not guarantee anyone's safety.

Always use your judgment, comply with applicable local laws and follow the instructions of emergency services and public authorities.

Film only from places where you are legally allowed to be. Never obstruct emergency workers, interfere with their work or put yourself or anyone else at risk.

Consider the people, personal information and locations shown in your footage before publishing it.

Laws vary between countries and regions. You are responsible for understanding and following the rules that apply where you record and publish. When in doubt, do not record or publish identifiable or sensitive content.

In many countries, you may record what is plainly visible from a street, square or another place open to the public. This may include public officials and emergency services carrying out their duties in public.

However, these rights and restrictions are not the same everywhere and are never unlimited. Being in a public place does not allow you to obstruct anyone, interfere with an operation, enter restricted areas or disregard applicable local laws.

Where local law is stricter, local law applies.

Film only from places where you are legally allowed to be.

• Do not enter private property without permission.
• Do not trespass or enter restricted areas.
• Do not film through windows, over walls or fences, or use zoom or other equipment to capture activity taking place in a private space.
• Do not use hidden cameras or concealed microphones, or secretly record people who reasonably believe that they are in a private situation.

Something being visible from a public place does not automatically mean that recording or publishing it is permitted.

Hospitals, schools, courts, airports, military or police facilities and critical infrastructure may be subject to legal, security or internal restrictions. Follow displayed restrictions and lawful safety instructions from authorized staff or authorities.

Avoid arguing or escalating a conflict at the scene. If you believe your rights have been violated, address the matter afterwards through the appropriate legal channels.

Never obstruct police officers, firefighters, medical personnel or other emergency and public services. Keep a safe distance and do not interfere with their work.

Take particular care when recording audio.

Rules on private conversations vary considerably. In some jurisdictions, recording may require the consent of one participant; in others, the consent of everyone involved.

Do not deliberately record private conversations unless you are certain that doing so is lawful.

Do not use a drone unless you comply with all applicable aviation, privacy and local requirements.

Depending on the location and type of flight, these requirements may include:

• operator registration;
• pilot training or certification;
• insurance;
• permission from the property owner;
• compliance with altitude and distance limits;
• and authorization to use the relevant airspace.

Never fly over emergency operations, crowds or restricted areas unless you are expressly authorized to do so.

Avoid unnecessary close-ups of people who are not directly relevant to the event.

Whenever reasonably possible, obtain permission before publishing recognizable images of private individuals who are the main subject of the recording.

Do not publish close-ups or other content that identifies:

• children;
• victims;
• injured or deceased people;
• detainees;
• witnesses;
• vulnerable people;
• or anyone who may be placed at risk.

An incidental appearance in a wider public scene is not the same as deliberately focusing on or identifying a person. Even so, do not publish the footage when the person's identity, location or circumstances could expose them to harm.

Do not deliberately reveal personal or sensitive information, including:

• home addresses or telephone numbers;
• identity documents;
• medical information;
• computer or telephone screens;
• access cards;
• security credentials;
• or license plates when they are unnecessary or could expose someone to risk.

RiiS does not currently provide tools for blurring faces, voices, license plates or other identifying details.

Reports recorded using the RiiS camera cannot be edited before publication. If a report can only be shared safely by concealing someone's identity or sensitive information, do not publish it.

Every report recorded with the RiiS camera is published with the location where it was recorded. This location is displayed on the map and cannot currently be hidden or made approximate.

Do not publish a report when revealing its location could:

• endanger you or another person;
• reveal the location of a victim, witness or vulnerable person;
• interfere with an emergency response;
• expose a protected shelter or safe location;
• or reveal confidential police, military or security operations.

You may own the video you record without owning the rights to every work or performance that appears or can be heard in it.

• Do not record concerts, performances, screenings, sporting events or exhibitions when recording is prohibited by the organizer or venue.
• Do not record television broadcasts, cinema screens, photographs, videos or other protected works and present them as your own original material.
• Be careful with music. Clearly audible copyrighted music may prevent RiiS or a news organization from using or licensing the footage, even when the video itself was recorded by you.
• Do not publish footage that you are contractually prohibited from sharing, including confidential workplace material or content covered by a confidentiality agreement.

Recording something and publishing it are not necessarily governed by the same rules.

Before uploading a report, consider the laws that may apply to:

• privacy and personal data;
• image and personality rights;
• copyright;
• defamation;
• confidentiality;
• ongoing investigations and court proceedings;
• the protection of minors;
• and the identification of victims, witnesses and vulnerable people.

Do not publish content that could endanger someone, prejudice an investigation or court proceeding, reveal confidential operational information or cause unnecessary harm.

When you are unsure whether recording or publishing something is lawful, do not publish identifiable or sensitive content until you have checked the applicable rules.

Do not submit or publish:

• staged, scripted or recreated events presented as real;
• photographs, video, audio or other material generated or materially created using artificial intelligence and presented as authentic reporting;
• content recorded by another person and presented as your own;
• old recordings presented as current or falsely connected to a recent event;
• content with a false or misleading date, location, description or context;
• illegal content or content obtained through unlawful conduct;
• threats, harassment, stalking, intimidation, hate speech, fraud or incitement to violence;
• content intended to deceive, manipulate, impersonate or falsely accuse another person;
• pornography, explicit sexual acts or content whose principal purpose is sexual gratification;
• non-consensual intimate images, sexual exploitation or content that violates another person's sexual privacy;
• any child sexual abuse or exploitation material, including real, simulated or AI-generated material;
• sexualization, grooming, solicitation or exploitation of minors;
• content that encourages, instructs or glorifies suicide, self-harm or dangerous challenges;
• content showing an identifiable person engaging in self-harm or attempting suicide, unless publication is lawful, necessary for a legitimate public-interest report and handled without sensationalism or identifying the person;
• gratuitously graphic images of identifiable victims, injured people or deceased people;
• content that exploits suffering, death or humiliation without a legitimate reporting purpose;
• or material that violates another person's privacy, copyright, confidentiality or other legal rights.

Content involving child sexual abuse or exploitation is strictly prohibited and may be preserved and reported to the competent authorities where required or permitted by law.

Every report published on RiiS can be reported from the report itself. Tell us what is wrong with it and we will review it.

You can also block a reporter from their profile or from any of their reports. Blocking hides that person's reports from your feed and prevents them from contacting you.

We review reported content and act on the ones that break these guidelines, usually within 24 hours. If content puts a child or anyone's safety at immediate risk, we act as soon as we see it.

When publishing material recorded directly through the RiiS camera, you confirm that:

• you personally recorded the submitted material;
• it depicts a real event and has not been staged or recreated;
• its date, location, description and context are accurate to the best of your knowledge;
• it is not an old recording presented as current;
• you have the necessary rights and permissions to submit and publish it;
• and it has not been edited, manipulated or presented in a way that materially changes the meaning of what happened.

Material uploaded or published by an authorized RiiS administrator or editor from another legitimate source must be clearly identified and must not be presented as having been personally recorded by that administrator or editor.

Automatically applied device or platform processes, such as compression, stabilization or technical formatting, do not by themselves make a report inauthentic.

You are responsible for the material you submit and publish through RiiS, including its legality, accuracy, authenticity and effect on other people.

By publishing, you confirm that the information you provide is truthful to the best of your knowledge, that you have the necessary rights to submit the material and that you are not presenting manipulated, synthetic, old or third-party content as an authentic current report.

These guidelines supplement the RiiS Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. If there is any inconsistency, the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy prevail.

Depending on the nature and seriousness of the conduct, RiiS may:

• reject or remove content;
• add a warning or reduce its visibility;
• request additional information or verification;
• restrict access to particular features;
• temporarily suspend an account;
• permanently block or terminate an account;
• preserve relevant information where required or permitted by law;
• or report suspected serious illegal activity to the competent authorities.

RiiS may act immediately when content creates a risk to a child, another person's safety, an ongoing emergency or the integrity of the service.

Where reasonably possible and legally permitted, RiiS will inform the affected user when their content is removed, restricted or rejected, or when action is taken against their account, and will provide the main reason for the decision.

The user may request a review by contacting info@riisapp.com and providing enough information to identify the report or account and explain why they believe the decision should be reconsidered.

RiiS will review the request in good faith. A review does not guarantee that the original decision will be reversed, and RiiS may withhold information when disclosure could endanger someone, interfere with an investigation or violate the law.