Facebook's new Safety Check feature tells friends you're safe during natural disasters

[Himanshu Arora]

Facebook has launched a new feature that aims to help you connect with your family, friends, and loved ones during or after natural disasters. Dubbed Safety Check, the feature is rolling out globally on Android, iOS, basic feature phones, as well as desktops.

Back in 2011, when Japan was hit by one of the most powerful earthquakes, triggering a massive tsunami, people relied heavily on technology and social networks like Facebook to stay connected with those they cared about. Facebook says the new tool is an extension of the Disaster Message Board, which was created at that time by the company's engineers in Japan with an aim to make it easier to communicate with others in trying times.

Safety Check will get activated after a natural disaster, and if you’re in the affected area, you’ll receive a Facebook notification asking if you’re safe. If you really are, you can select “I’m Safe” and a notification and News Feed story will be generated with your update. There is no option to say NO.

Facebook says the tool determines 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 it gets your location wrong, you can mark that you’re outside the affected area.

If you have Facebook friends in the area struck by the disaster, the tool will also notify you about those that have marked themselves as safe. You can also mark your friends as safe, but they have to approve it.

Facebook is not the only major tech company working to connect people after disasters, Google's Person Finder tool has already been successfully used several times in disaster situations.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/58458-facebook-new-safety-check-feature-tells-friends-youre.html

 

[Forg0t2]

Another useless feature that's going to cost emergency personnel unnecessary problems. Not having an option NO is just dumb. How do you want to check if somebody is indeed in trouble, by waiting untill he does not respond? What's the time interval to determine whether or not somebody is actually in trouble? or what if he/she isn't and didn't want/ forgot to reply. It's like giving a bird the feature to fly but leave out the wings.

 

[Nobina]

I wouldn't rely on this.

 

[JohnCB]

Your only options are "I'm safe" or "I'm not in the area" ? What if you're not safe and there's a problem. Sit and wait until it times out? What if I lost my phone in a tornado? What if there's no cell reception after the disaster? Will it time out and mark me as not safe despite the fact that I may actually be safe?

This does not appear to be well thought out, and may end up causing more grief and anguish to your loved ones.

 

[Kibaruk]

Contrary to what others have expresed, I think it's a very neat feature even if there is work to be done with it.

Of course its not something to 100% rely on, but still you could easily know which of your affected friends/relatives try to contact to see if anything happened.

Normally the first thing to go out on disasters (At least here in Chile, as I lived for example the 2010 8,9° earthquake in Concepcion) is the phone network since EVERYBODY is trying to call their loved ones, in my example it happened around 4 am and I couldn't contact anyone until around noon the same day (I lived in different regions as the rest of my family at the time), so my parents had no idea if I was dead or alive, maybe this could've send a quick update in one of those seconds that the network went back online. With this case in mind I could've as easily sent a whatsapp message or sms, indeed you have options, but it's a nice feature to have.

 

[Guest]

Finally someone who gets it. I don't know whats wrong with people, I think most people just like to b!tch and moan about nothing. I think this is a good idea since it offers another avenue of communication especially when all other avenues of communication are congested or down. I just want to know if you loved one is OK when you can't reach them. How hard is that to grasp?

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

"Facebook says the tool determines your location by looking at the city you have listed in your profile".

So they ask if you're OK after bombarding you with a ton of ad's... more importantly how do you reply if you're 'ahem'... slightly dead or buried under piles of concrete with your phone?
That said, if you are unfortunate to be in the devastated area but OK wouldn't you just rather call someone instead of posting on FB? (assuming you could pick up a signal)

 

[elemental]

Like and share my hopelessness and destitute across facebook. I'm o.k. but I've lost everything and need a few more like and shares in 5 minutes so facebook will send me something.

 

[Kibaruk]

Wow this is a great community full of constructivism!

I saw the same news on another site and the difference in responses wows me.

 

[Forg0t2]

Finally someone who gets it. I don't know whats wrong with people, I think most people just like to b!tch and moan about nothing. I think this is a good idea since it offers another avenue of communication especially when all other avenues of communication are congested or down. I just want to know if you loved one is OK when you can't reach them. How hard is that to grasp?

I dunno but this works through internet. If I'm in trouble and facebook was the only webpage in the world that I could use I would send a chat message explaining my problem. Or just the words I need Help would work a lot better than a function that only gives you the option to say ur okay.

The feature makes me feel that I'm obligated to all my facebook contacts to tell them I'm okay. I have other things to do at those points. I'm either working / on vacation or I'm helping others that are in trouble.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Anyone capable of responding would likely post a status update anyway. This is a pathetic example of just how stupid people can be!