UK eyes 'walk me home' phone-tracker to protect lone women

REALLY not looking forward to the day I read that these apps are being hacked!

Only a woman can use the life saving app?

Only in the imaginations of edgy pot stirrers.

How about the Save Us From Priti app?

Why not do as many do now and just call your friend and talk while walking home?

The app is a right step, though there are other similar apps available, but what is required is better implementation and as Sarah Everard’s murder showed, hiring the right people..

There are men who believe they can get away with such acts, that’s why such incidents happen.

Come on. It’s not going to be an app for women only. I mean think about it, how would that work. In this day and age? Really?

Besides that, I doubt it will have any real benefit other than finding a body faster.

The Avenger

Why not do as many do now and just call your friend and talk while walking home?

This app sends alert messages even if she can't get to her phone. Also, it is a much better deterrent if the usage of such an app is advertised.

Sounds good but I'm willing to bet there will be many many false alerts. I can see a woman walking home but... forgets something and turns back/gets a call and stops to chat/ runs into an old friend/receives a message and stops to reply/decides to go shopping/gets delayed by inclement weather, etc and forgets to turn the service off. What happens then? You worry your emergency contacts for nothing but I guess it would still be better than a real emergency.

Why not just give women microchipped collars and get it over with?

It's s really good idea, and it can save lives! If it automates requesting emergency rescue services if the tracked person either leaves the prescribed route or takes too long to reach the destination. Not only for women, children and men could obviously use it as well!

Wouldn't it be too late to send a notification if a woman has not reached her destination? I thought preventing an attack would be the purpose of such app, not a post attack notification!

The chief executive of Britain’s biggest phone company, BT, proposed the “walk me home” service in a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel.

Is it illegal for BT to make an app without permission from Big Brother?

Paul

Wouldn't it be too late to send a notification if a woman has not reached her destination?

Maybe. Maybe not. There still may be time.

I thought preventing an attack would be the purpose of such app, not a post attack notification!

If uptake of the app is widespread and people know it is out there and that a perpetrator's next potential victim is using it, they will think twice.

And now, a word from the opposition party.

From the Independent:

Campaigners and MPs have asked whether the government should take stronger measures against male violence rather than asking women to be tracked.

Angela Rayner, deputy Labour leader, said on Twitter: “Here's a radical idea for you Priti - instead of tracking women's movements as we go about our lives, how about the government actually tackles male violence instead?

“Only 1% of reported rapes result in a charge. That's the problem, not us walking home.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/888-emergency-number-priti-patel-b1935408.html

Angela Rayner, deputy Labour leader, said on Twitter: “Here's a radical idea for you Priti - instead of tracking women's movements as we go about our lives, how about the government actually tackles male violence instead?

Why does it have to be one or the other? Like any problem, it's best to take measures to make sure it doesn't happen, to deal with it if it does, and make it easier to identify after it happens.

-Is it illegal for BT to make an app without permission from Big Brother?

It's BT, so they may want it to be paid for doing it with public money or to have the only one officially sanctioned. BT are good at getting money from the government and defending monopolies.

Anyone can build such an app, and probably a better one than BT. Perhaps one that responds to a woman's phone not moving for more than a fixed period of time, moving out of a predefined area (whilst tracing that movement), or being turned off (intervening in the shutdown procedure, so it looks like it has turned off, but is sending an alert, recording AV and location tracing).

Front pockets could be added to coats to allow mobiles to be used as bodycams, and a touch and hold emergency button option could be used that sends a map location and a request for assistance.

There are loads of options. I'd be surprised if there are none on the app stores. If there aren't, there soon will be. I expect Facebook will be working on an alert option, and Google may already be tracking everyone 24/7.