The Civil Rights Defenders have issued their first batch of GPS bracelets that will alert the CRDs’ headquarters, other nearby activists, and the entirety of the CRDs’ social media following if the bracelet’s owner is ever kidnapped. The first 5 bracelets were issued from April 2nd through April 5th during the Civil Rights Defenders’ conference, Defenders’ Days. The CRD plans on issuing 55 of these bracelets over the next year and a half.
The bracelets are described as a personal alarm, and the product is called the “Natalia Project”. It was named after Natalia Estemirova, a human rights defender who, in 2009, was murdered within 24 hours of being kidnapped. The CRD believed that if the authorities were alerted sooner of Natalia’s kidnapping, the tragedy could have been prevented. Robert Hårdh, the Executive Director of Civil Rights Defenders, stated that these bracelets “gives us an opportunity to react faster and extend our hands-on protection further.”
The GPS bracelet can be activated manually, or if an attacker forcefully removes it from the activist’s wrist. A signal with the activist’s GPS location will be sent to the CRD headquarters in Stockholm. Alerts will also be sent out to other CRD activists within the vicinity, and an automatic notification will be sent out throughout the Natalia Project’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.
The Civil Rights Defenders state that these bracelets could potentially alert hundreds of thousands of people instantly. It would also put pressure on the attacker, because having the entire world become aware of the attack “creates virtual protection around civil rights defenders at risk.” Unfortunately, the CRD requires additional money to get these bracelets to more activists. Its asking anyone who can help to support the Natalia Project with any donation amount they can afford. You can find out more about the Natalia Project here.
GPS bracelet uses social media to protect Civil Rights Activists is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Some of us might tweet about mundane stuff in life, but it seems that there is a whole lot more to Twitter than meets the eye, especially after you read about this story of a Belfast woman who managed to track down her missing mum after 11 hours. Diane, as seen on Twitter with one of her four legged besties, was tweeted by her daughter, Joanne, who claimed that Twitter managed to help her locate her mother, which is no mean task considering how Diane suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease, which has been deemed by some to be the Long Goodbye.
Twitter recently introduced some changes to their micro blogging site, in the form of Twitter Cards, and here we are with another update on what else Twitter has been up to. Apparently, Bloomberg has just announced that they will be integrating Twitter feeds into its terminals. These are no ordinary terminals, as they deliver real-time, financial data to the desks of Wall Street traders. This announcement was in line with the SEC’s decision which was made earlier this week, touting that social media has finally made the jump to being a valid platform for corporate disclosures, although it goes without saying that both companies should have begun integration work a whole lot earlier before the official announcement.
