Some French newspapers have recently dealt with applications designed to give immediate help to women who find themselves in a situation of danger and emergency; and which, depending on the case, have very different functionalities and principles. Some of these apps have drawn criticism from many feminist activists; others, such as App-Elles, also available in Italy, were generally appreciated.
The prerequisites of a good anti-abuse app, as they are called, should be its free of charge, the connection with operators and personnel specifically trained to deal with gender-based violence, and the protection from further potential risks to which the app itself, through geolocation or data storage services, could exhibit. Often the description with which those same applications are presented is however very generic and misleading: many, in fact, do not guarantee prompt intervention but only a series of information, although often useful.
In Italy, there are at least fifteen apps dedicated to violence against women and their safety. Many are above all informative: that of the DiRe Association – “Women on the Net against violence” – for example, it is free, contains emergency numbers, but was designed above all to search and find the nearest anti-violence center and receive useful information. Others respond to the specific need to find immediate help in case of danger: they are often paid, and almost all allow you to send a report directly to the emergency numbers, to 1522 (the anti-violence number of the Department for equal opportunities) or to an operations center that tries to contact those who ask for help or in turn the police. In this case the data with one's position are shared with third parties, but it is not clear what their training is nor if they are really able to evaluate the danger of the situation.
Still other apps also provide that a network of users can report dangers or harassing people by informing anyone who approaches the area of the report. However, it means that to see what the reported dangers are, you identify your position on the map, with a consequent problem in the management of personal data.
App-Elles, on the other hand, is the app that has been most appreciated by experts. It was introduced in France in 2015 by Diariata N'Diaye, who for seven years worked with the Observatoire des violences faites aux femmes, and is therefore competent on the subject. The application is very simple, it is free and guarantees complete anonymity. It allows potential victims of violence, in the event of an emergency, to contact three trusted persons of their own choosing with a message. It also allows you to contact the emergency services (112) or associations and professionals who provide help. It does not allow contacting strangers, does not collect personal information and makes the position available only to the three pre-set contacts.
When you activate an alert on App-Elles, your phone's GPS and microphone are activated immediately. With the information provided by the alert, contacts can call emergency services on behalf of the person in distress and provide them with specific details about the location, health status and type of crisis situation. When an alert is triggered, it also starts a recording and a live audio stream that can be heard by the three contacts and reused as evidence in the event of a complaint and investigation. All information and data collected during the alert are stored on a server to which the user and his contacts have access for 14 days, before they are completely deleted.
The advice that App-Elles gives to its users is to explain well to the three chosen contacts how the app works and what their role is. App-Elles can also play a role in cases of domestic violence. One option allows you to hide the app giving it the appearance of another application: a useful protection in case of attacks inside your home and family cyber surveillance. According to Anaïs Leleux, feminist of the NousToutes association, App-Elles – which has also won several awards – is the best application created to date against violence against women: “Diariata has been involved in these issues for a long time, she has surrounded herself of experts and immediately wished that its app could not be used against its users “.
