Facebook launches 'Safety Check' tool to help people deal with disasters
During a major disaster or crisis like situation including natural calamity, Facebook users can inform their friends and family about their location and that they are safe by using the new Safety Check tool.
When the tool is activated, Facebook determines that a user may be in an area where a natural disaster occurred and the social network will send a notification asking if the user is safe. If the response “I’m Safe” is selected, Facebook will create a post and share it on the user’s news feed, telling friends they are out of danger. Even friends can mark others as safe/unsafe etc.
Facebook determines a user’s location by looking at the city listed in their profile, their last location if they’ve opted in to the Nearby Friends service, and the city where they are using the Internet, presumably derived from their IP address. If the location is wrong the user can tell Safety Check they are not in the affected area.
If a friend is in a disaster area and the tool has been activated, people on his/her friend list will receive a notification about those friends that have marked themselves as safe. Clicking on the notification will show a list of their updates.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg launched the service during a visit to Tokyo on Thursday and the Safety Check was created after the great earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011.
“It’s meaningful to be in Tokyo to announce this because the great earthquake and tsunami a few years ago inspired us to build the first version of this for Japan,” said Zuckerberg, in a posting to his personal Facebook page.[/img]
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