Rave Guardian, my angel guardian or the tracker who spyed me ?

My angel guardian ?

Security becomes more and more needed in our days. The different events about terrorism attacks, violence facts and very recently the Virginia University gunshot made the Rave company to propose a new service : the Rave Guardian.

What is Rave Guardian ?

Rave Guardian is a GPS-based security system for organizations. It is three part composed.

• A central system (called the server-side application) which contains user profiles and monitoring informations.
• The users mobiles containing an installed application (called the client-side application) which allows to configure personal security parameters and to send alerts.
• A satellite who links between Users mobiles and the central system.

How does the Rave Guardian works ?
Its major security function works as follows :

• The user sets a timer on his Rave Guard mobile application if he feels unsafe, for example when crossing a long distance by night or when making a hard trip through mountains or forests …
• While the timer is running, the mobile sends user’s location with date/time and profile to the central application via the satellite.
• The user turns off the timer once he doesn’t need the security function.
• If the timer expires and if the Rave Guardian application on the client-side is still activated (it means the critical state is reached), an emergency signal is sent to the central application. The police is then notified with profile, date/time and positions of the user. Virtually, the chronology and the path of the user are build to make the police intervention in real time and easier.

At this time, Rave Guardian is being tested on campus communities. We can easily imagine that they are their self guinea-pig (because the system has been developed by American universities ), but is seems natural that in a near future the system will be proposed to the general public and enterprises once it will be improved and approved. Rave Guardian would be also adapted for applications such as medical assistance.

Can we say that Rave Guardian is a new angel guardian ?
Such system is not an innovation. The army and police have been using for many years this kind of systems to track peoples either for their security or for catching them. So is the Rave company announce really serious evoking virtuous goals of safety, or just a way for governments to impose or legalize a real spy system on the pretext of security and safety ? It is know that these systems are really feared by peoples for their liberty and too less debates and discussions have been made in order to understand problems and limits of these systems and particularly their applications …

Restyled by Rabah LEKHEBASSENE.

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