America’s ‘panic button’ to wipe phones of democracy activists, perturb repressive governments

So, here’s the scene. You’re out at [insert city center here], completely neglecting any and all work duties, throwing Molotov cocktails on the building of the State you’ve grown to hate. It’s a protest in every sense of the word, and also you’re rallying the troops via Twitter and Facebook. It’s actually not an uncommon painting nowadays, and while America’s not into promoting violence, it is into keeping the private information of democracy activists secure. In keeping with a fresh Reuters report, the usa State Department is currently developing a software-based “panic button” that could wipe a phone’s address book and beam out emergency alerts to fellow protesters in the event that they were apprehended. The goal this is to guard the privacy of these captured while promoting their best interests, and to let others know that trouble is brewing. There’s no clear indication of the status here, but something tells us that it’d be useful yesterday for a certain region of the globe.

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This post is tagged: address-book, democracy activists, molotov cocktails, panic button, reuters report, us state department