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from the If-you-are-reading-this-message... dept.
Natalie Matthews writes that a year ago, a friend of hers left her two roommates at a bar to walk the three blocks home to their apartment in a yuppie Boston neighborhood. "She wanted decent sleep before a Saturday morning exercise class; her friends wanted late night food. Instead, she was jumped by a stranger on the curb of her apartment building, brutally raped, and beaten in her living room while her roommates ate burritos, none the wiser," writes Matthews. " If she'd done something, anything, differently, would it have changed the outcome of her night? It's an unproductive exercise, both she and I know. And yet when I heard about Kitestring, she was the first thought that flashed in my mind, because maybe Kitestring would have helped her, had it existed then."
Kitestring is a new service that aims to make sure people get from point A to point B safely, notifying their emergency contacts if they don't. You tell Kitestring that you're in a dangerous place or situation, and give it a time frame of when to check in on you. If you don't reply back when it checks your status, it'll alert your emergency contacts with a custom message you set up. "Perfect for blind or online meet-up dates, walking home at night, or feeling safe in any dangerous situation, Kitestring is like the virtual mom I've always needed," writes Mary Rockcastle, "especially if your mom is like mine and is never awake past 8:30pm."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RobotMonster on Monday April 28 2014, @09:19AM
Neat idea, but wouldn't this be more effective if it sent the alert when you failed to check-in, instead of sending you an "are you okay?" ?
I can see a kidnapper, for example, with possession of your phone, simply replying back that all is well when your virtual mom messages you ((or forces you to do so).
I presume their intent was to prevent false emergencies from people who forget to check in, but it does seem a weakness in the system.
If the reply needs a password (but doesn't look like a password request), then I guess that works too..
Nothing to see here, move along. Everything's fine.
(Score: 4, Informative) by RobotMonster on Monday April 28 2014, @09:23AM
Answering my own question, from the Kitestring FAQ [kitestring.io]:
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Monday April 28 2014, @11:14AM
They should probably add a "duress keyword" that disables the visible alarm and notifies police, contacts, etc, for when a person is forced to turn it off.
(Score: 2) by gringer on Monday April 28 2014, @01:29PM
I guess you didn't read the FAQ that was recently linked:
Ask me about Sequencing DNA in front of Linus Torvalds [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday April 28 2014, @02:47PM
^ Yes. Because obviously if you're being raped, you need another excuse for your attacker to beat you until you tell him the password. (obligatory xkcd $5 wrench reference)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
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