
App turns power button into panic button for activists at risk - secfirstmd
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-06/23/amnesty-panic-button
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marknutter
Since this would never pass Apple's approval, why not take another approach:
create an app that checks in automatically on a pre-set interval. If the phone
ever gets turned off and a check-in is missed, the dead man's switch will
flip. When you're in danger, just turn the phone off. This also has the added
benefit of triggering the alert if the captor/aggressor turns off or destroys
the phone. Just enable it when you know you're going to be entering a dicey
situation.

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rimantas
Sorry to hijack the thread but: does anyone know the "dead man switch" online
service? Can be as simple as sending email if some action is not completed at
predefined time. It's pretty triaval to do, but if there is an existing one…

~~~
Xylakant
[https://deadmanssnitch.com/](https://deadmanssnitch.com/) is what we use.

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e12e
Nice. Panic App meet signal jammer.

Perhaps a combination with some form of dead-man's-switch could be useful? A
basic design might be: record gps coordinates at an interval, encrypt to
chosen gpg/pgp keys and store on a server. Additionally have a heart-beat, and
pre-recorded message. When the heart-beat signal is interrupted for a
configurable length of time, send email(s) with encrypted message and gps
trail?

The reason for encrypting the data, would be an effort to minimize the risk
associated with a compromise of the server account(s) (could really just be
smart remailers - allowing the server interface to be via smtp).

Perhaps combined with a panic-button for signalling immediate distress along
with destroying the signing gpg sub-key (so that, when authorities get help
from the vendor to unlock the phone, they can't send a signed "I'm ok, never
mind"-message).

Would require the usual mess of administrating keys, of course.

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DanWaterworth
Soon:

I came as quickly as I could, are you OK?

Yes, I was just trying to turn up the volume of my music, but wasn't paying
attention.

~~~
skrebbel
I have no idea why you were downvoted. This is definitely going to happen.

~~~
Karunamon
Volume button != power button. Nobody ever hammers on the power button
repeatedly.

~~~
aestra
You haven't seen some tech illiterate people try to work a phone have you?

That's something my mom would do. She once asked me how you can tell if the
phone was on or off... no joke.

~~~
Karunamon
Tech illiterate people probably aren't the ones to install a panic button
application for use by demonstrators.

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fit2rule
Nice .. I wrote a similar app, a "Fall Detector", which allows you to send an
SMS (or Twitter alert) if the app detects you have fallen over:

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=at.spantec.sec...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=at.spantec.securemotion.falldetector)

Seems like it would also be useful to have some mechanism like this in such an
"emergency app", so that operator interaction is not required - more of a dead
man switch than a big fat button ..

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pxlpshr
Built this 5 years ago. You will get an expired SSL error as the acquirer has
since abandoned it.

[https://plerts.com](https://plerts.com)

It was free to use with friends and family, or you could have paid a small fee
for 24x7 S&R and medi-vac backed by Lloyds of London.

One of the biggest issues is "top of mind". During times of severe distress –
most people forget they have these services available. They are so distraught
and in fear of their life, they are not thinking clearly. 911 is an exception
because it's been engrained in us (Americans) since we were born.

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secfirstmd
Can I ask why you gave it up?

~~~
pxlpshr
Without going into detail, a lesson in M&As.

~~~
secfirstmd
I would be interested in a chat at some point. Interesting business model. I
reached out to you on twitter.

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jeffbr13
Combine it with a Pressy button[1] and you won't even need to override the
power button.

[1]: [http://get.pressybutton.com/](http://get.pressybutton.com/)

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escapologybb
This is a really cool idea, I particularly like the fact that it can be
disguised as another app on the phone. Rather than it being "I'm the panic
button app Mister oppressive government operative, please delete me" it can
just be disguised as a calculator.

I wonder if there is a choice of which app to mimic for the disguise, and
whilst this isn't going to be a silver bullet it definitely adds another layer
of defence to people who really need it.

~~~
anarchitect
I had a friend who worked for a well-known movie director who built a "black
book" contact list disguised as a tip calculator. A quick search does not
return any association between his name and an app, but I can see there are a
number out there.

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minikites
There's a similar app called SafeTrek:

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/safetrek/id716262008?mt=8](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/safetrek/id716262008?mt=8)

~~~
erbo
Of course, SafeTrek is intended to contact the police. The "Panic Button" app
seems to be intended for those for whom the police may be the people they need
to be rescued _from._

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mdattilio20
This might be a good thing to install on my kids' phones?

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aestra
I can't tell if you are serious or not...

Are your children human rights activists at risk from attack, kidnap or
torture? Do you anticipate them being in a situation that requires them to
dial for help in a stealthy manner?

Do your children know how to dial you or 911?

~~~
mdattilio20
Mostly I'm pondering if this would be useful for them in the (very unlikely)
case that they get into a situation where they can't dial 911 (need to be
quiet or otherwise don't want to draw attention to themselves). But, as others
point out, actually remembering the app exists when you need it may be
problemmatic. And even so they would then have to find it on screen 27, past
all the 2048, angry bird, and flappy bird games and things.

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wingerlang
This could pretty easily be setup on a jailbroken device also.

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mantraxC
Nice, we're evolving the same mechanisms for quick herd notification that
animals have.

This is why humans and animals scream when we're in danger (not because
screaming is a very effective danger mitigator), and this is why some animals
jump in place when they detect danger
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stotting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stotting)).

We've had these two signals exploiting our vision medium, and our sound
medium. And now increasingly, we're adding signals exploiting our digital
network medium.

As those become more and more commonplace they have a very tangible effect on
our society. Think Twitter riots and what not.

BTW, people in Japan get an instant smartphone warning when there's an
earthquake.

~~~
kalleboo
> BTW, people in Japan get an instant smartphone warning when there's an
> earthquake.

To be specific, BEFORE there's an earthquake. Otherwise it wouldn't be very
useful :) And it's not just smartphones, this system is in place on dumbphones
well (using the GSM Cell Broadcast feature).

Americans get an instant smartphone warning when a child has been kidnapped
[http://www.imore.com/amber-alerts-your-iphone-what-they-
are-...](http://www.imore.com/amber-alerts-your-iphone-what-they-are-and-how-
manage-them)

~~~
mnw21cam
> To be specific, BEFORE there's an earthquake.

Yes, it takes a little while for seismic waves to travel from the epicentre to
locations a fair distance away. The high speed trains are programmed to start
braking as soon as an alert is heard - it's usually enough to shed 100mph or
so off the speed before getting in trouble.

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sw1988
www.panicguard.com sasha@panicguard.com

Was built in 2011 and serves giant security companies.

Old news.

