Pinoys to benefit from Facebook's new ‘Safety Check’ disaster response feature

Will Facebook soon be the go-to site when disaster strikes?

 

The social networking giant has rolled out a new feature dubbed "Safety Check" that allows people in a disaster area to indicate they are safe.

 

"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," Facebook's vice president of product management Naomi Gleit, product manager Sharon Zeng and software engineer Peter Cottle said in a blog post.

 

Safety Check should be a tool that "helps you stay connected to those you care about, and gives you the comfort of knowing your loved ones are safe," they added.

 

They said Safety Check will be available globally on Android, iOS, feature phones and desktop.

 

Mechanics

 

When the tool is activated after a natural disaster, a user in the affected area will receive a Facebook notification asking if he or she is safe.

 

Facebook will "guess" the location based on the user's profile, or last location if the user opted in to the Nearby Friends product - or the city where a user is using the internet.

 

"If we get your location wrong, you can mark that you’re outside the affected area," it said.

 

Users who are safe can select “I’m Safe” and a notification and News Feed story will be generated with their update.

 

Friends can also mark them as safe.

 

Thus, they said Safety Check will help users inform friends and family they are safe; check on others in the affected area; and mark friends as safe,

 

On the other hand, Facebook said only friends will see users' safety status and comments they share.

 

Japan quake

 

Safety Check traces its roots to the 2011 Japan quake that affected more than 12.5 million people.

 

"During that crisis we saw how people used technology and social media to stay connected with those they cared about," Facebook said.

 

Facebook engineers in Japan built the Disaster Message Board to make it easier to communicate with others, then tested the tool a year later. "The response was overwhelming," it said. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News