At a time when Nepal and parts of India have been convulsed by a devastating earthquake, modern web technology is turning out to be a boon as distressed family members are able to locate their loved ones.
Social networking website Facebook, and Google's person finer have helped locate the whereabouts of those stranded in quake-hit areas.
People from parts of West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh have been using this app mentioning that they are safe.
Facebook’s safety tool, ‘Safety App’, is being used to find those in the affected areas. Launched in October, the app is used to generate alerts to Facebook friends of those trapped in the affected areas who, in turn, confirm that they are safe.
“Safety Check is our way of helping our community during natural disasters and gives you an easy and simple way to say you’re safe and check on all your friends and family in one place,” Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg had said in a post.
How it works?
Facebook asks the person in affected area to update their safety status thus, generating a notification to friends on the social network about his or her safety. This feature lets one check the number of people who are safe and those affected by the calamity along with providing information about location where the person is trapped.
Person Finder helps the affected individuals post their safety statuses by using this tool, which acts as a database of missing persons and helps their family members trace them.
It comes with two options–“I’m looking for someone and “I have information about someone”.