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Facebook Makes Safety Check a Permanent Feature (techcrunch.com)

Facebook announced today that its "Safety Check" feature will be permanent in its app and on the desktop. The feature lets you check to see whether friends and family are safe following a crisis. TechCrunch reports: The change comes following new terrorist attacks, including one in Barcelona, where a vehicle was driven into a crowd, as well as the attack in Charlottesville, here in the U.S. According to Facebook, the dedicated button is gradually rolling out to users starting today, and will complete over the upcoming weeks. That means you may not see the option right away, but likely will soon. When Safety Check is accessed by way of the new button, you'll be able to view a feed of disasters, updates from friends who marked themselves as safe and offers of help. An "around the world" section will display where Safety Check has been recently enabled, too.

51 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. We have nothing to fear by houghi · · Score: 1

    ... but fear itself.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    1. Re:We have nothing to fear by gsslay · · Score: 4, Insightful

      One more every-day feature designed to heighten people's fear of something statistically very unlike to happen to them. I look forward to it being extended to an feature where every time you log in, it automatically messages all your Facebook 'friends' that you haven't been struck by a bus, fallen in a lake, choked on your sandwich or 101 other possible ways someone, somewhere may have died recently.

      Hang on, it's been a full 10 minutes since I reassured everyone on Facebook I'm still living, and I hear someone fell off their bike in Australia. They need to know it wasn't me. Be right back....

      Stay safe everyone. I worry about you and it's be a while.

    2. Re:We have nothing to fear by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      Knowing Facebook it will have a Like button

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    3. Re: We have nothing to fear by haruchai · · Score: 1

      Redneck killed one person. Muslims do this shit all the time, yet the media says we should fear the rednecks. Laughable.

      You need to learn more about the history of "rednecks" - and the ones who wear blue uniforms

      --
      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
    4. Re: We have nothing to fear by haruchai · · Score: 1

      Redneck killed one person. Muslims do this shit all the time, yet the media says we should fear the rednecks. Laughable.

      "Redneck" drove a car through a crowd, killing 1 but injuring 19.
      Could have been much worse.

      --
      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
    5. Re: We have nothing to fear by haruchai · · Score: 1

      Redneck killed one person. Muslims do this shit all the time, yet the media says we should fear the rednecks. Laughable.

      The people who lost family to Dylann Roof still aren't laughing. Was he a Muslim?

      --
      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
    6. Re:We have nothing to fear by rmdingler · · Score: 1

      Hang on, it's been a full 10 minutes since I reassured everyone on Facebook I'm still living, and I hear someone fell off their bike in Australia. They need to know it wasn't me. Be right back...

      That's exactly the way some people already use the Facebook, constantly posting up to the minute, mundane little details about their special little lives.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    7. Re:We have nothing to fear by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      One of mine was at Las Rambals on the day of the attack. When I heard the news my heart sank and a whole 30 seconds later when I checked on facebook and saw "marked herself safe" the moment was over.

      Did you ever think that she was fine all along, and there was no crisis, and that you have been conditioned by the media to freak out? Why did your heart sink? You really, honestly, and truly thought that your friend had been killed? Yeah, no. That's what terror attacks are supposed to cause. You're helping the Islamic terrorists win with this kind of behavior.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    8. Re: We have nothing to fear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Redneck killed one person. Muslims do this shit all the time, yet the media says we should fear the rednecks. Laughable.

      The people who lost family to Dylann Roof still aren't laughing. Was he a Muslim?

      The people who lost family to Mohammed Atta aren't laughing, either, and there are a LOT more of those. Yeah, he's a Muslim.

      The people who last family to Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik aren't laughing, either, and there are more of those. Yeah, they're both Muslim.

      The people who lost family to Omar Mateen aren't laughing, either, and there are more of those. You guessed it, he's a Muslim.

      The people who lost family to Khalid Masood aren't laughing, either. Yep, ANOTHER Muslim.

      The people who lost family to Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain, and Germaine Lindsay aren't laughing, either, and there are a lot more of them. Despite the name, they were - surprise - ALL Muslims.

      The people who lost family to Salman Ramadan Abedi aren't laughing, either. And AGAIN there are a LOT more of them. Shockingly, he's another Muslim.

    9. Re:We have nothing to fear by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      One more every-day feature designed to heighten people's fear of something statistically very unlike to happen to them

      Oh get over yourself. This doesn't make anyone scared, and it's not just for terrorist attacks.

      Uh huh. Go without your phone for a week. I've watched especially young people blanch and panic when that last bar of their phone disappears while travelling. Even had one try to get me to change routes, because "What if someone in my family is hurt or dies while I am out of cell service?"

      The problem with safety culture and it's effects is that the safer we are, the less safe we feel. After one of my sisters moved to Florida, my other sister would fly into a panic any time there was a weather alert for Florida. It was like Florida was only one small town.

      Just wait until those home monitoring video systems fully kick in. There will be people who hardly work any more because of monitoring all the security cams in their house. After all, "if I look away, something might happen!"

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    10. Re:We have nothing to fear by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      Did you ever think that she was fine all along, and there was no crisis, and that you have been conditioned by the media to freak out? Why did your heart sink? You really, honestly, and truly thought that your friend had been killed?

      This. Humans, especially the less intelligent ones, are only capable of thinking in a tribal fashion. They hear news from around the world, but they think of it as if it's local. That way a little girl who is kidnapped is mentally processed as Suzy frmo next door, or any other disaster is just like it happened in their own town. I don't specifically blame the media, but human tribalism, aided by safety culture's fear of everything.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    11. Re:We have nothing to fear by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      Jesus Christ, you're full of shit. Yes, those of us who leave our parents' basements from time to time have people that we care about. When those people are in the vicinity of violence or natural disaster, we worry about them. We can't all be autistic robots concerned only with the collection of waifu dolls donning our Cheeto-encrusted desks.

      Or maybe he understands something. Once this feature is established, and people are addicted, imagine what is going to happen. Let's take a relatively benign disaster, a big blizzard that knocks down power lines over a large area. Your loved one can't check into Facebook because their cell phone towers have lost power, and the emergency batteries have gone flat. So while they may be perfectly safe, maybe a little chilly, but blankets and candles might just make for a fun evening with their SO, if you know what I mean.

      Meanwhile, you are shitting your pants because you watched the news and they haven't checked into Facebook yet.

      You think they are in a snowbank, dead as door nails, human popsicles while they are enjoying some sexy snuggling.

      Safety culture, making us feel completely unsafe since forever.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    12. Re:We have nothing to fear by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      One more every-day feature designed to heighten people's fear of something statistically very unlike to happen to them

      Oh get over yourself. This doesn't make anyone scared, and it's not just for terrorist attacks.

      Uh huh. Go without your phone for a week. I've watched especially young people blanch and panic when that last bar of their phone disappears while travelling. Even had one try to get me to change routes, because "What if someone in my family is hurt or dies while I am out of cell service?"

      They got that out past the duct tape?

      Silly person, Duct tape is for amateurs. Pros superglue their lips shut.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    13. Re: We have nothing to fear by tsa · · Score: 1

      Easy. 17 words. First word... sounds like...

      --

      -- Cheers!

    14. Re:We have nothing to fear by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Well, I do specifically blame the media. They are instilling a culture of fear. Have you watched your local news lately? Nothing but violence and death, with a happy story thrown in once a week.

      Would you have them be forbidden to report anything you don't want?

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    15. Re:We have nothing to fear by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

      One more every-day feature designed to heighten people's fear of something statistically very unlike to happen to them.

      I know people who live in, or are visiting, all sorts of places around the world, and I'm not alone in this. I suspect that this feature might actually help cut the paranoia.

      Next time some arsehole does something violent in Rome or Melbourne or wherever, it's good to be reminded that the vast majority of people there are largely unaffected. Perhaps a little inconvenienced if they happen to be in the middle of the city, but otherwise perfectly fine.

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
    16. Re:We have nothing to fear by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

      Would you have them be forbidden to report anything you don't want?

      There's a huge gap between "X is doing something wrong" and "there oughta be a law". You bridged it, but not everyone thinks that way.

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
    17. Re:We have nothing to fear by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Would you have them be forbidden to report anything you don't want?

      There's a huge gap between "X is doing something wrong" and "there oughta be a law". You bridged it, but not everyone thinks that way.

      The issue with news is that it is impossible to be completely unbiased. There is so much news in the world, and reportage is time limited, so the mere act of picking what to post news about indicates whatever bias there might be.

      So somoeone gets tired of say, The former President's birth certificate news, and another is pissed that they keep reporting on something the current one does, and somoene else is angry that new stories violence on blacks is reported, and another is pissed because they are putting out disparaging stories about the KKK and Neo Nazis and someone only wants happy news.

      So maybe there shouldn't be any news.

      Agreed that not everyone thinks like me, but I've been a problem solver all my life, so if someone complains, I look at it a a problem they would like solved.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    18. Re: We have nothing to fear by haruchai · · Score: 1

      Redneck killed one person. Muslims do this shit all the time, yet the media says we should fear the rednecks. Laughable.

      You need to learn more about the history of "rednecks" - and the ones who wear blue uniforms

      I'm fine with removing those who wear the blue uniforms from all places that don't want them.

      COMPLETELY removing them.

      Why don't you try selling that to your neighbors?

      Several places I've lived have tried but been voted down. Police *forces* aren't the only way to keep the *peace*

      --
      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
    19. Re: We have nothing to fear by haruchai · · Score: 1

      If the West had never interfered with the Muslim world, we would not have these problems. Like Europeans in America, we were the invaders.

      --
      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
  2. The reach of social media by simplypeachy · · Score: 3

    Wow. I had no idea just how deeply social media's infection had reached into people's lives. People carry around "disaster alerts" in their pockets now? They expect their friends and family to actively mark themselves as "safe"? I can't fathom what it must be like to live such a life of fear.

    1. Re:The reach of social media by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You completely failed to get the point. Facebook is a primary method of mass communication for many, as is twitter. Much of the news of the day now happens on these networks first. With everyone being a producer of the content it also makes it the most easy to get word out about people's status.

      We're not living lives of fear, we're living lives of anxiety. We always have. You may not remember the bombings in Manchester in 1996. I do. I had a lump in my throat for about 10 hours while I was wondering if my cousin who worked in the area was still alive before a family member finally managed to get him on the phone.

      Compared to that last week while we were at work when news broke of the Barcelona attack we all wondered if one of our colleagues was okay. Not 10min passed before her Facebook status was marked as "safe" even though she was on Las Ramblas at the time of the attack.

      Thinking that this is a bad feature doesn't show the world is afraid, it shows you lack empathy.

    2. Re:The reach of social media by simplypeachy · · Score: 2

      I do empathise. I feel sadness that you and your "we" are living lives of anxiety.

    3. Re:The reach of social media by Kjella · · Score: 1

      You don't think that it's common to make a Facebook post to let everyone who cares about you know that you're alright if you've been in the vicinity of some sort of disaster? You might call your partner & close relatives, but Facebook has replaced email lists and such. Of course by disaster I mean more like the 2004 Indonesian earthquake (280,000 dead) than ten people dead in a million plus city. That's really the crazy part here, it puts Facebook in charge of what's a disaster.

      And it creates a form of expectation that if Facebook wants to know if you're safe, you should respond because otherwise your friends will start to worry. When it's potentially just the phone/internet service that is down or your phone got lost or broken or some other trivial reason you haven't responded. Even if the Barcelona attack was a pretty big deal, you really want 1,599,900 people to report in that they're fine so you can worry about the 100 that haven't? That is just nuts.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    4. Re:The reach of social media by simplypeachy · · Score: 1

      I don't know if it's common, I do not use Facebook. I wouldn't use an email list to tell anyone about my safeness if I was in the vicinity of an accident. My friends and family don't tend to be aware of my daily whereabouts so why would they have any reason to worry about me if something happened somewhere?

      You make an interesting point about Facebook deciding how to classify a disaster - but then I suppose, differing countries, states etc. probably all have their own criteria, as well as individuals. In our modern-day hyper-aware lives, even small events can be blown out of proportion so it's not as if Facebook could rely on crowdsourcing such a definition on the fly - not without problems, anyway.

      As an outsider to the mindset of every-day life being a step away from catastrophe, it strikes me as quite chilling that there is a mental hair-trigger that such people carry around with them. Are these victims able to truly relax? Can they sit and unwind and let their guard down at the end of the day? It must be an exhausting way to live.

    5. Re:The reach of social media by thereitis · · Score: 1

      The button will disappear until FB realizes terrorists can use a small disaster to lure more folks into a bigger disaster.

    6. Re:The reach of social media by lucasnate1 · · Score: 1

      As someone who comes from a country that has a history of terror attacks, I can tell you that calling someone to make sure they were not hurt is not something new. People have been doing this here (both calling to say they're safe and calling to check if others are safe) before we even had internet.

    7. Re:The reach of social media by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      We're not living lives of fear, we're living lives of anxiety. We always have. You may not remember the bombings in Manchester in 1996. I do. I had a lump in my throat for about 10 hours while I was wondering if my cousin who worked in the area was still alive before a family member finally managed to get him on the phone.

      You're just playing idiotic semantic games by trying to substitute "anxiety" for "fear" and trying to pretend the latter is different while demonstrating that you treat them as equivalent.

      I've had friends and family who live near the sites of accidents, attacks and disasters - and never felt more than a moment of concern. Accidents, attacks, and disasters are generally small, and cities generally big. Except for something large scale (like a weather related issue or a quake), there's generally no particular reason to feel concerned.

      But I admit I'm the outlier. Since the onset of the 24/7 news cycle in the late 70's/early 80's the vast majority of people have become conditioned to living in fear. Social media didn't create this, it just amplified it.

    8. Re:The reach of social media by laie_techie · · Score: 1

      Considering the odds of being in a terrorist attack are incredibly low, and yet you apparently know two people who were in them or nearby. I call bullshit.

      Also - you can just as easily message people without using Facebook. FB is just a way for people to blast out messages without having to actually talk to anyone personally. It's nearly as dehumanizing as the terrorists who tried to bomb your fake cousin and coworker.

      Which is more efficient: calling everyone you know to let them know you're ok (or at least key people who can spread the word) or do a single post on social media? This feature is to lessen the cell network traffic so people won't get a network not available type message while calling 911.

    9. Re:The reach of social media by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I do empathise. I feel sadness that you and your "we" are living lives of anxiety.

      You not having anxiety when a friend / family member is known to be in the mediate vicinity of a terrorist attack shows that you do in fact not empathise at all.

    10. Re:The reach of social media by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      You're just playing idiotic semantic games by trying to substitute "anxiety" for "fear" and trying to pretend the latter is different while demonstrating that you treat them as equivalent.

      No. "Fear" in the context of terrorism has a very specific meaning. The fear of the terrorist. The fear to the personal self.
      Anxiety due to not knowing status of someone is not a fear. I don't* fear that someone may be dead, but I'm anxious to know if they are alive. Calling it semantics is just a failure of understanding of language.

      *unless they own me lots of money. :-)

      Except for something large scale

      Interesting qualification given that this is generally what the feature has been used for.

    11. Re:The reach of social media by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Considering the odds of being in a terrorist attack are incredibly low, and yet you apparently know two people who were in them or nearby. I call bullshit.

      Nearby is not just spatially but also temporal.

      Two? I actually know about 5. Another colleague of mine was in Brussels in a cafe opposite the train station which was bombed. A good friend of mine was at a Christmas market in Berlin on the 18th (one day out, and a market 2km away, but since I didn't know the exact details at the time it becomes irrelevant). I myself was contacted by my family while I was in Paris due to the "terrorist attack" at Place d'Italie. Turns out it wasn't an attack, just an electrical transformer that had gone up, and it was my local metro station while I was there on work.

      Basically you need a statics lesson. There's a good chapter in one of my stats books "Why coincidences are certain." Take the number of possible people you know, with the number of possible ways they could die in groups, add an uncertainty of a day or two, and a few km around an area and I bet you that you know more than 1 person who you weren't certain if they were affected as well. Plus I live in a country surrounded by countries constantly having terror attacks, and we europeans get around. I actually have friends who live in nearly every city affected by the past few years worth of attacks, including small ones like Nice.

      Also - you can just as easily message people without using Facebook.

      Yeah I can. But carriers often throttle spam messages like that or don't deliver them. Plus why would I selectively send messages out to people without knowing if they are interested in my status or not? You do realise the concept of a bulletin board style one-to-many communication systems predate not only Facebook, but also predate electricity right? There's a reason these services exist.

    12. Re:The reach of social media by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      Except for something large scale

      Interesting qualification given that this is generally what the feature has been used for.

      No. This feature's use hasn't been limited to large scale disasters - it's mostly used for very small scale and localized things (such as Charlottesville or various shootings).

    13. Re:The reach of social media by simplypeachy · · Score: 1

      "Click this ad from our sponsors to keep your Platinum Status in Life Alert!"

    14. Re:The reach of social media by simplypeachy · · Score: 1

      As they add another hook in their system to maintain the presence of their products.

  3. Re:May as well call it "Muslim Check" by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1, Interesting

    No it's not. A very small group misrepresenting a religion does not mean you go rounding up everyone of that religion. Do you want to round up all Christians because of the KKK or Neo-nazis? Or some of the contemporary Christian terrorism groups?

    It's people like you that should be rounded up because you help spread the hatred and give these groups another justification for their fight. They point at you and say that all Westerners hate Muslims. And when you make statements like that you make the Muslims that are here, and an important part of our society, feel disenfranchised. That's why they are leaving. You are pushing them away.

  4. Re: May as well call it "Muslim Check" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Wrong. Muslims declared war on the rest of the world centuries ago.

  5. Re:Scaremongering sells? by Winter+Lightning · · Score: 1

    Scaremongering is also a great diversionary tactic.

    The "war on terrr" saved how many lives?
    How many lives would a war on tobacco producers–significant contributors to the top three causes of death–have saved?

     

  6. Re:May as well call it "Muslim Check" by The+Cynical+Critic · · Score: 1

    Talk about the pot calling the kettle black... If you think the Ottoman Empire was a major factor in the fall of the Roman Empire then you really need to go re-read your history books or stay away from those "alternate facts" because at most the Ottoman Empire took advantage of the fall of the Roman empire to establish itself.

    --
    "Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it."
  7. The difference of Swedish media and other media by aliquis · · Score: 1

    /:

    "where a vehicle was driven into a crowd"

    Swedish media:
    "a vehicle drove through a crowd."

    Or vehicles don't have drivers. They are simply vehicles driving over people. (and only racists think it's terrorists attacks committed by Muslims and even if they are it haven't got anything to do with Islam. And that only make sense, because where in the Quran and Hadiths may you find any example whatsoever of hatred of non-Muslims, orders to fight enemies of Islam and capital punishment for breaking its laws?!)

    1. Re:The difference of Swedish media and other media by umghhh · · Score: 1

      This was an autonomous vehicle so it drove itself into the crowd. Besides if it had a driver the actual event could not have anything to do with the book you mentioned as motor vehicles were not invented yet at the time of writing.

  8. Re: May as well call it "Muslim Check" by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

    Why should they be distinct from other religions in that sense? Especially the Abrahamic religions, such as Christianity and Judaism, where righteous genocide is key to the oldest stories? I'm specifically mentioning the willingness of Abraham to slaughter his son for his god, the world flood of Noah, the slaughter of Jewish infants by the Egyptians and the slaughter of every first-born Egyptian child by the Jewish god, the slaughter of the Canaanites by Jews upon reaching the "Promised Land". It goes on to more modern, verifiable epics Abrahamic religious genocide in the Middle Ages, especially the Crusades against the Muslim controlled countries around Jerusalem. The African, pantheistic religious are hardly immune from this, nor are the faiths of Asia.

    Muslim peoples and nations have declared war at various times. So have _many_ other nations, and faiths.

  9. Re: May as well call it "Muslim Check" by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Yes, but use them intelligently. Just dropping them somewhere isn't going to accomplish anything.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  10. Re: May as well call it "Muslim Check" by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Pretty much any religion contains some sort of justification for Lebensraum. Our people need more room, and the heathens have it, so club their heads in. Deus vult!

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  11. Re: May as well call it "Muslim Check" by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Hey, the justification is even older than that, given the age of the holy scriptures they draw their justification from, a mere millennium is kinda recent.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  12. Re:Religion, spirituality, and. ... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    'Do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you.'

    A dangerous proposition in a world that is obviously full of masochists.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  13. Re:May as well call it "Muslim Check" by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Yes, and in the end it was rightfully called "The Sick man of Europe. With the only debatable portion thereof being the "Europe" but certainly not the sick part. It was a shadow of its former self. It had nothing of the vitality and threat that it was to Europe a mere 300 years earlier when it conquered half of Europe before being stopped by the Polish king at the gates of Vienna.

    A service Austria repaid about a 100 years later by dividing up what was left of Poland between it, Prussia and Russia, but let's not engage in negligible petty sentiments like thankfulness. In international politics? Pfff, get real.

    Any empire, in history, had a birth, a high time, a decline and a demise. Every single one. Some went down faster, some lasted longer, but none lasted forever. The Egyptians, the Hittites, Romans, Franks, Russians, Spaniards, English and now the US... Empires came and went.

    It is quite easy to topple an empire in the end. The end of the Roman empire came when it needed to staff its legions with more and more foreign soldiers, to the point where the Romans didn't do any work at all anymore and pretty much relied on slaves and foreign soldiers to defend their way of life. That was pretty much the death spell of the empire. Which lasted longer in the East, actually, but even that had an expiration date. Yes, the Ottoman Empire eventually conquered the last bits of it, Constantinople itself, but that was already at the point where it didn't really take that much to fell it anymore. That was more pulling the plug on a patient on life support rather than assassination of a capable fighter.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  14. Great! by mindstormpt · · Score: 1

    The feature made perfect sense when it was first used for large-scale disaster, e.g. tsunamis affecting the majority of people in a given area. Nowadays, I'm flooded with alerts about some guy who ran around with a knife, as if there's any chance that the people I know in the same city were affected.

    Now that they're making it permanent, maybe they'll finally implement a setting to turn the whole thing off.

  15. More hysteria than reassurance for casual users by Beerdood · · Score: 1

    I'm not too convinced this will be useful, especially for casual facebook users. that are actually safe during a crisis but fail to mark themselves as "safe" with this feature. Say there is a crisis in your location, and you're using this to see who's OK in your friend list. 75/100 friends are safe. Phew. What about the other 25? Or even if it's only 8/10 that you really care about. Are they dead because they didn't check in? Or maybe they just forgot their phone that day. As this feature becomes more ubiquitous on facebook, it will increase the worry factor for those not on facebook enough to use it via "false negatives".

    --
    Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM
  16. HA HA HA! by MerlTurkin · · Score: 1

    I don't do Facebook. That's even safer.

  17. Re:May as well call it "Muslim Check" by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Yes, this was the important part of the posting. Good job. It's up there with pointing out a missing apostrophe.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.