Saf(H)er Technology
Introduction:-
Oxford Dictionary defines Feminism as “The belief and aim that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men; the struggle to achieve this aim”. The first origins of the movement for women’s rights were noticed during the 19th and early-20th centuries and today, we are witnessing the peak of the fourth wave of feminism, which began around 2012 and is associated with the use of social media. The fourth wave saw the resurgence of interest in feminism with movements like the #MeToo movement which gained momentum on Twitter, wherein women from different spheres of life talked about their sexual assault experiences and allowed survivors to feel supported while simultaneously starting a conversation about the prevalent issues surrounding harassment, assault, and the changes that need to be made.
The fourth wave also included women speaking about the harassment they faced online via social media platforms. These two contrasting instances raise an important question; in what ways does technology impact women?
Impact Of Technology On Women’s Lives:-
As students and learners, we can all agree with the fact that online learning is a blessing. Platforms like Udemy and Coursera provide a wide variety of certified courses on topics ranging from Web Development to communication skills. These courses open the doors of opportunity for women around the world, especially those living in rural areas and those who do not have access to private schooling. These skills will create prospects of employment and a stable income.
Many women around the country are forced to give up on their careers and dreams after the birth of their first child because often, employers are hesitant to offer jobs that require long hours of work to mothers. In other cases, work environments are incapable of providing the pre-natal and post-natal care that pregnant women require. The possibility of ‘Work From Home’ allows mothers and pregnant women to continue their desk jobs from the comfort of their homes.
Technology and social media also empower women to know more about their rights and the laws that protect them. It provides a platform for women to speak about their experiences and the problems they faced in domestic and corporate environments.
Lastly, in recent years there have been several developments and innovations in the tech world that have had a major impact on women’s safety. Let us take a closer look at the same!
Positive Impact of Technology on Women’s Safety:-
Every girl and woman in India dreams of a time when she does not have to be scared of stepping out of her home at night without a male companion and a country where her parents do not have to be concerned about the whereabouts of their daughter wondering whether tonight, she will return home or not. Till such a vision is realized, one has to be aware of one’s surroundings and ensure that they take full precautions and safety measures. Technology plays an important role in this.
A revolutionary innovation in technology that has changed the face of women’s safety has been protective wearable technology. The different types of GPS-enabled wearable devices like smartwatches, smart jewelry, and smart clothing are used to track a girl’s live location and enable parents and family members to know her location using their own mobile devices connected to the girl’s device via Bluetooth.
Similarly, the advent of several apps dedicated entirely to the security of women has contributed largely to making the streets safer for us. Examples of such apps available in India are as follows:-
1. Himmat:
App Link for Playstore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dp.himmat&hl=en_IN&gl=US
Himmat app is a free safety app recommended for women by the Delhi Police. In a dangerous situation, if the user raises the SOS alert from the app, the location information and audio-video will be sent directly to the Delhi Police control room.
2. Raksha:
App Link for Playstore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.portalperfect.sosapp&hl=en_IN&gl=US
The Raksha app is designed to ensure that women feel safe at all times. The app comes equipped with a button, which will send alerts to your loved ones with your location in a situation of distress. More importantly, if the app is currently not open on the user’s phone, they will still be able to send alerts by simply pressing the volume key for three seconds.
3. Shake2Safety:
App Link for Playstore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.photon.shake2safety&hl=en_IN&gl=US
The Shake2Safety app is the easiest to use. The user just needs to shake their smartphone or just press the power button four times to send an SOS message or call the registered numbers. It works with the locked screen on and even without an internet connection.
4. Trakie:
This app gets all the real-time information about the movement, location, battery percentage, signal strength, and speed of traveling of your close ones.
5. My SafetiPin:
App Link for Playstore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.safetipin.mysafetipin&hl=en_IN&gl=US
My SafetyPin app acts as your guide in choosing the best and safest route. On entering an unsafe location, this app gives alerts and you can invite family or friends to track you. The safety of an area is measured using various parameters like public transport, visibility, security, etc.
6. Chilla:
App Link for Playstore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=comm.Kishlay.screamDetector&hl=en_IN&gl=US
A woman unable to press the button of her phone while facing some problem can activate the Chilla app by shouting. On activation, this app sends an alert message to the woman’s guardian.
Apart from these apps, there have been several other technological provisions to make women feel safer. Current Law Minister and then Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had recently announced that all mobile phones sold in India will have to feature a panic button from January 2017, which will allow women in distress to seek help. He also stated that all mobile handsets must have an in-built GPS to identify the mobile user’s location from January 2018. These measures have been proposed due to the view that emergency response apps can take too long to access in a hurry, and configuring one of the existing buttons on a phone for the same would be easier and more effective.
Negative Impact of Technology on women’s safety:-
While technology has impacted the issue of women’s safety in numerous positive ways, it is a double-edged sword. Online harassment is on the rise, with new cases of online mental, emotional and physical abuse being reported every day. Although men are also subjected to online harassment a study found that online, women are more than twice as likely as men to experience sexual harassment. The study also stated that more than half of women aged 18–29 have been sent sexually explicit images without their consent. These shocking figures prove that the online space is not a safe environment for women.
Often they are slut-shamed, threatened, and attacked for something as simple as posting a picture in what some would consider proactive clothing. Every day young girls and women get solicited by strangers and end up wondering what they did to cause it, and have to walk around knowing that while they’re just trying to live their lives, others are objectifying them. This unsafe environment is not exclusive to social media, technology can also be misused by hackers to track a woman’s address. Another extreme form of online harassment is doxxing. Doxxing is when someone’s personal information, such as their address, phone number, place of employment, banking details, and even information on their family members, is published online as a call for others to harass them. With more women using technology and online mediums to learn, express, and grow, a safe online environment is the need of the hour.
The Tech Behind GPS:-
In this article, the word GPS or GPS-enabled was used several times. It is enabled in smartphones and smart wearable devices to track the user’s location. What does it mean? What is the logic behind its working? Let’s know more.
GPS or Global Positioning System is a navigation system using satellites, a receiver, and algorithms to synchronize location, velocity, and time data for air, sea, and land travel.
GPS is made of three parts called segments that work together to provide location information. The three segments of GPS are:
1. Space (Satellites) — The satellites circling the Earth, transmitting signals to users on geographical position and time of day.
2. Ground control — The Control Segment is made up of Earth-based monitor stations, master control stations, and ground antenna. Control activities include tracking and operating the satellites in space and monitoring transmissions. There are monitoring stations on almost every continent in the world, including North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
3. User equipment — GPS receivers and transmitters including items like watches, smartphones, and telematics devices.
By capturing the signals from satellites, GPS receivers can use the mathematical principle of trilateration to pinpoint geographic locations. With the addition of computing power and memory such as road maps, points of interest, and topographic information, GPS receivers are able to convert location, speed, and time information into a useful display format.
Trilateration is a sophisticated version of triangulation, though it does not use the measurement of angles in its calculations. Data from a single satellite provides a general location of a point within a large circular area on the Earth’s surface.
This gives us a general overview of the technology used in the Global Positioning System.
