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Facebook 'Safety Check' Lets Friends Know You're OK After a Major Disaster
rtoz (2530056) writes Facebook has launched a new Tool called "Safety Check." The Facebook Safety Check tool will notify your friends so that they know you're OK after a major disaster. In times of disaster or crisis, people turn to Facebook to check on loved ones and get updates. "During a major disaster, Safety Check will help you:
Let friends and family know you're safe; Check on others in the affected area; Mark your friends as safe ... When the tool is activated after a natural disaster and if you're in the affected area, you'll receive a Facebook notification asking if you're safe. [Facebook] will determine your location by looking at the city you have listed in your profile, your last location if you've opted in to the Nearby Friends product, and the city where you are using the internet. ... If you're safe, you can select "I'm Safe" and a notification and News Feed story will be generated with your update. Your friends can also mark you as safe." More creepy, or more reassuring?
How fucking hard is that.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
ISTM that panicky mothers would *love* this...
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
For the audience this is aimed at (which isn't most slashdotters), definitely reassuring. Facebook has a *huge* base of people who just use it to keep in touch with family's lives, and the ability to mark Grandma as okay even if her internet is down is pretty appealing.
Also good for antisocial people, you can avoid being bothered by a flood of people who are just checking up.
I say that because I was one of those who thought that after about a decade of existence, its usage would be on the wane. I guess I was wrong. They are really trying to remain relevant.
I salute them for that even though in my small world, Facebook is still of no consequence.
What if the disaster is that Facebook is down?
"No. I'm not."
everyone gets on their phone at a slightly windy thunderstorm clogging up the networks (voice, data or pots) so I understand that having a OK button to click is more desirable, but does it really solve the problem when everyone and their dog is A) still calling B) trying to update a half dozen media sites and C) now facebook is going to auto spam you complete with graphics and ad's
seems like if you really want to help in this situation it would be better to have phones that can mesh together and ping pong data around until it can find a outlet that is not damaged or clogged, instead of "every phone for itself" system.
I lived in London in 2005 when the terror attacks happened there, and my morning commute took me through kings cross. That day with the mobile network switched off, it was hard to let people know I was ok, know if my girlfriend was, and many other people I knew took. Sure there was landlines to call direct if you knew where people were, or email as a bit of a broadcast I'm ok, but something like this would have been far better.
Have had family members in NZ earthquake and a few other misc disasters. Facebook was the best way to find out if they were ok.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
Jesus will return next March when I need him to mow my lawn again.
Getting served beta.slashdot.org when I asked for slashdot.org.
Hey editors... I don't want this fucking view! It sucked a year ago and it still sucks! Hello?? Anybody home???
How much will it cost to make sure everyone sees it??
... mesh networking.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
... Facebook will also track your progress in Softball games using GPS and your last location on the field, if you've opted in to the Facebook Knows Where You Are at All Times product, to generate a notification when it thinks you've crossed a base or home. If you're safe, you can select "I'm Safe" and a notification and News Feed story will be generated with your updated stats.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Corporations are masters at the parallel proposal pf doing US some good when actually, it does THEM hundreds of times better.
Facebook wants to be in our face and they really, truly, want our real names and location and they want to be tapped in on any revenue prospecting opportunity like a disaster.
Doesn't twitter already occupy this space?
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Why not just post a status update that sats "I'm fine. Munching on a Pop-Tart."
A post a day keeps productivity at bay.
Problem is that the Safety Check assumes FB knows where you are. I have that switched off, either via iOS's allow/deny access to the GPS, or on Android since permissions are all or nothing, XPrivacy feeds it a random place each time.
For example, One of three things will happen if I eat a twister while RV-ing:
1: I'm dead.
2: I'm injured (hopefully the SPOT device or phone works.)
3: I'm OK enough to start sending texts and FB posts out with pics of the mess.
If I'm dead, it won't be that long before it is found out. Injured, similar. The benefits of getting asked if I'm OK don't outweigh the fact of being being tracked via location 24/7 and having that info handed to whomever feels like buying it.
Facebook comment: don't worry, I'm OK!
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
I can just imagine what my timeline would look like...
"Going on a blind internet date - wish me luck!" ... six months later ...
"> is alive!"
In 2011, I couldn't reach my sister for over an hour after an earthquake. It would have been awesome if I could have just checked her page.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
I just use phone/email instead :)
I KUT J00 M4NG!!!
As a designer of systems for use in alerting during disasters (Tsunado) in New Zealand, we have had to think long and hard about what telecommunications platforms to use when disaster strikes. Unfortunately IP and cellular networks are incredibly fragile. Broadcast networks, even if they are compromised, are the easiest to restore quickly. However they are suitable only for outgoing messaging.
The peer to peer systems such as what Facebook are promoting here, are already implemented in local systems here in NZ (such as Cloud-M) and they have the advantage of being "local". However, in a major disaster you have to plan for the likelihood of interruptions to both international and national data traffic.
Whatever, all these systems are designed for certain levels of use, and when a disaster strikes, and everyone attempts to go "online", then these systems die, by being swamped. Even the reliable old "copper wire" telephone exchanges were designed only for about 15% usage at any one time.
The so called "man up" systems to help communicate with family and friends will always be reliant on the health of the underlying communications platforms. Fibre, copper and other physical mediums will be knocked out for significant times during earthquakes and ineffective during power outages. Wireless will get overloaded immediately, and if power is lost, we find their backup regimes tend to be short.
Until these obstacles are overcome, the best approach is to have established plans with your family to respond in predictable ways during an event. Plan to congregate at an established location, or have an alternative if that area is inaccessible. Have established responsibilities and of course access to survival packs. And have a battery powered radio! Sometimes old is best.
Disasters don't always strike independently.
You survived The Big One. Great! You reported yourself safe. Even better! Too bad the ensuing tsunami got you, and nobody thought to go looking for you.
Or an aftershock.
Or a fire from a broken gas line.
Or a shortage of water and/or food.
You're not fine until you can get on with your life.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
The options are only "I'm safe" and "I'm not in the area". Other people can't now distinguish between the situations that you are not safe or that you have just not got around to click a button.
...they call this "checking inventory".
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
I actually like the idea - having been on an overnight flight landing on 9/11, I remember quite a few online contacts wanting to check I was OK. Of course, with Facebook a simple status update would have done the trick, no need for any special tool - and if I'd been offline, a friend could probably have posted that on my page on my behalf. (The gap between "can phone a friend" and "can get online" is pretty slim these days, too: much more so now than it was then.)
It's all about being safe.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
That seems like the best part. If you have no internet connection, all you need to do is contact one person (who might need to contact another person) who can mark you safe. That would cut down a lot of phone traffic on a system that will be congested or downgraded.
What does Facebook's great addition do that this doesn't (other than give them an excuse to track where I am)?
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
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Facebook should make this "feature" opt-in, not "you're using this feature whether you want to or not".
Fuck everything else, fuck the dislike button, I want the ability to DELETE identifiable information from facebook.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Or "aaaaaargh".
It might only work if you dictate it.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."