Safety

Before meeting

Read profiles and references critically, check the offer is current and discuss expectations through contacts you choose to share. A short call may help. Consider meeting in public first, tell someone you trust your plans and arrange a check-in.

Keep an independent way to leave, enough money for an alternative and access to your phone. Check transport, local conditions and relevant insurance or entry requirements. You can decline, delay or change your mind even after Open.

Hospitality and boundaries

Before hosting or staying, discuss the location privately, who will be present, sleeping arrangements, dates, house expectations and proposed costs or practical help. Avoid assumptions about privacy, intimacy, meals or work. Keep backup accommodation and tell someone trusted the address once agreed privately.

Consent to contact is not consent to touch, intimacy, an overnight stay or another activity. Respect refusal without bargaining or repeated requests. If circumstances differ from the agreement, pause and reassess. You do not have to stay to be polite.

Travel, boats and volunteering

For shared travel, clarify route, driver, vehicle condition, stops, costs, luggage and how either person can leave. Avoid depending entirely on a new contact for money, documents or onward transport.

For sailing or crew opportunities, ask about skipper experience, boat condition, weather, route, safety equipment, communications, emergency plans and expected tasks. Check the activity fits your ability and that you can decline before departure. A profile or badge does not certify a skipper or vessel.

For volunteering or projects, agree on tasks, hours, supervision, accommodation, expenses and boundaries. Check permits, qualifications or insurance where relevant. A listing does not establish employment terms or legal suitability. Reconsider if the offer changes into unexpected labour or financial pressure.

Protect personal information

Use approximate places in profiles and routes. Avoid home addresses, identity documents, ticket codes or financial information in public text and photos. Even approximate routes and dates reveal patterns. Use route visibility controls where appropriate.

Review contacts marked for sharing. They can be retrieved through previous Opens, including by earlier connections; pausing does not close them. Disable sharing or block as appropriate. Neither retrieves screenshots, copied contacts or external messages. Profile photos require authenticated access, but copies previously saved by other members cannot be recalled.

Recognise scams and pressure

Slow down when someone creates urgency, gives inconsistent details, requests money to secure a meeting, asks for login codes or identity documents, sends unfamiliar payment links or insists on secrecy. Verify claims independently. Friendliness and a high point total are not proof.

Unexpected destination changes, unusually generous promises, demands for intimacy or unpaid work, and anger at your boundaries are reasons to reconsider. Preserve relevant evidence safely if reporting, without unnecessarily exposing other people’s data.

Limits of trust signals

References describe specific experiences and may be incomplete, mistaken or disputed. Activity indicators and paid membership are not safety assessments. The absence of negative feedback does not mean no problem occurred.

Optional meeting and device-proximity checks are not identity verification, background checks, continuous tracking or safety assessments. Activity indicators are not professional certification. Consider them alongside your own checks.

Blocks, reports and emergencies

Block stops new in-app contact and access to the connection while blocked. Manage blocks in Settings. External calls and messages need the external service’s own controls. Unblocking may make an existing Open accessible again.

Report from the profile using safety, harassment, spam, privacy or other. Explain what happened and distinguish observations from suspicions. Administrators can review related interaction context, but there is no guaranteed response time or emergency intervention.

For immediate danger or injury, move to safety if possible and contact local emergency services or appropriate local assistance. Eternal Pilgrim is not an emergency response service. Do not wait for report review before seeking help.