All iPhones sold in India must feature a “panic button” from 2017, according to a new order signed into law by the country’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The law states that every phone must include a panic button and in-built global positioning system, designed to protect women.
“Technology is solely meant to make human life better and what better than using it for the security of women,” Prasad said. “I have [therefore] taken a decision that from January 1, 2017, no cell phone can be sold without a provision for panic button and from January 1, 2018, mobile sets should also have inbuilt GPS.”
The push to include panic buttons on smartphones began last year when India’s Ministry of Women and Child Development asked mobile phone manufacturers to investigate this technology. In a country which suffers from unacceptably high levels of sexual harassment toward women, it’s definitely a positive move — even though it won’t solve the problem on its own.
Third-party panic button apps have been available for iPhones for years now; sending out messages with constantly-updated GPS locations. It is a concept Apple has explored internally, too, with a patent published late last year describing a way users could surreptitiously alert authorities from their iPhones by unlocking them with a specific finger.
According to Apple’s patent, this panic button may activate the iPhone’s microphone so that users could be immediately connected to the cops — as well as recording video of the scene which could later on be used as evidence to help arrest perpetrators.
Could Apple seize upon India’s demands to make a technology like this available to customers everywhere? It’s certainly something I would be in favor of.
Source: Indian Express
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
5 responses to “India will force Apple to put a ‘panic button’ in the iPhone”
This is nice… (considering most android phones already have this feature built in).
Moreover, there are a few iPhone apps that implement it quite nicely (although no hardware integration like samsung or LG phones).
I doubt the proposed ‘panic button’ will discriminate by gender, so men will be free to use it, too.
It’s not a solution: If the abuser knows every smartphone provides a panic button and some location reporting, it would be the first thing to get rid of, probably even before the victim (male or female) is able to use these features.
The real solution is to work out those sick minds, psychologically, psychiatrically or even legally, but I guess that’s been tried for years now with no success.
What’s affecting these abusers’ minds in the first place? Porn? Faulty sexual education? Geez, something should be done from the root instead of relying solely on technology…
Great until the attacker turns off the phone. Maybe also require a passcode to turn off the phone to add some integrity to panic buttons and Find my iPhone. That and disable TouchID when the panic button is activated to prevent the attacker from forcing the victim to unlock the device without a passcode. In fact, maybe only allow the phone to be unlocked from another device using find my iPhone after Panic is enabled.
Great suggestions!