Price for peace of mind

A young high school student walks out to their car after the night shift at work. It is late and the street light above her car is flickering. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a shadowy figure walking purposefully in her direction. Before she can panic, she whips out her smart phone and presses a few choice buttons. Her shoulders pull back with confidence as she now has ‘peace of mind.’

Now, most anyone can capture this ‘peace of mind’, as it is now available in the Apple and Android App store for a mere $29.99. This new App, appropriately and uniquely named UbnAppd, aims not only for user safety, but to allow parents to worry less about the security of their children.

As the parent of a teenager and high school student, Merritt Smith believes UbnAppd can provide peace of mind to family members.

“As a parent, I worry about the safety of my child almost constantly. She insists on working long hours and often walks out of her work very late at night. Although she is very responsible and often asks a co-worker to make sure she makes it to her car at night, any additional insurance that she will make it home safely is an investment I would be willing to make,” Smith said.

In addition to an uploaded video of a violent situation, the App will also send the video to emergency contacts, and the user’s location is identified through the phone’s GPS location in order for emergency services to respond quickly.

According the UbnAppd developer Medardo Delos Santos, a user must only click the icon to start recording the audio and visual aspects of a dangerous situation. The video will immediately be uploaded to the Cloud and cannot be deleted for 30 days.

And, to many criminals intent on attacking a victim, the knowledge that their face, their voice, and their actions are recorded will be enough to deter them from attacking in the first place.

“We had a woman that was being continually followed by three kids in a park when nobody else was around. She took the proactive approach and told the three kids; ‘UbnAppd, if anything happens to me, this video will be sent to my sister and the police.’ They took off running and left her alone. She called the next day to thank us,” Santos said.

Santos’s goal is that one day the UbnAppd App will be universally recognized and used to protect its users.

“As kids, we never really think about being in danger until something actually happens. Hopefully I’ll never be in a position where I would have to use something like UbnAppd but, if I ever am, I’d be happy to have it,” junior Bella Marko said.