During disasters it is difficult to know if your loved ones are affected immediately. Facebook has announced a new application that will help people announce to their loved ones whether they are affected or not named Safety Check.
When the tool is activated after a natural disaster and if you’re in the affected area, you’ll receive a Facebook notification asking if you’re safe. We’ll determine 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, Facebook explained.
If you have friends in the area of a natural disaster and the tool has been activated, you will receive a notification about those friends that have marked themselves as safe. Clicking on this notification will take you to the Safety Check bookmark that will show you a list of their updates.
A Kenyan application, Ushahidi has won accolades across the globe due to their emergency reporting and mapping application. The application became well known during the post election violence in Kenya between late 2007 and early 2008.