Safety: what ETA is and isn’t

Things that can stop an alert

• The screen turns off, or you switch to another app (browsers only send location to visible pages).
• The battery runs out, or the phone loses its location fix.
• No mobile signal when the alert is due (for “Tell my people”, the email needs a connection; ETA retries for a few minutes).
• Emails can be delayed, filtered as spam, or not read straight away.

So please don’t set things up so that someone assumes you’re in trouble only because an ETA email didn’t arrive — and don’t assume it about others.

Choosing who to tell

• Only add people you know and trust. An arrival alert tells them roughly when you’ll be somewhere.
• The live ETA link shows your position until the journey ends. Anyone the email is forwarded to could open it, so use it only with people you trust, and choose a short time limit.
• You can remove a contact at any time; their address is deleted from ETA straight away.

If someone is using ETA to keep tabs on you

ETA only sends alerts to people who have confirmed they want them, and only for journeys the traveller starts. Nobody can see your location through ETA unless you start a journey with a live link yourself. If you get alerts you don’t want, use the link at the bottom of any ETA email to stop alerts from that person, or to stop all emails from ETA for good.

No messaging strangers

To stop ETA being used for spam or harassment:

• nobody gets alerts until they’ve pressed “Yes” in an invitation, which shows the sender’s name and email address;
• each person can only be invited a few times, and accounts can only send a limited number of invitations and emails each day;
• “No thanks” means that sender can’t invite you again, and “never email me” blocks your address for everyone.

If you think ETA is being misused, email hello@eta.me.uk and we’ll look into it.

On the train or bus

Keep your phone and belongings secure, especially if you might fall asleep — a phone left face up on a table is easy to take. Keep a separate way to wake up in mind on journeys that matter, such as asking a companion or setting a time-based alarm on your phone’s own clock app as a back-up.

Written 20 October 2026.