By MassPrivateI

Law enforcement and more than one hundred colleges and universities have convinced their students to download ‘public safety’ apps that send tips to police in real-time.

The apps go by names like ‘LiveSafe’ and ‘SafeTrek’ and their selling point is, helping students feel safe.

These apps use GPS technology which allows law enforcement to monitor a student’s location in real-time.

As you will see from the videos below, playing to one’s fear of crime and terrorism is a great marketing ploy.

Is crime in America so prevalent that we need to use scare tactics to give companies and police our exact location in real-time?

No, it’s not. In fact the exact opposite is true.

Boston and cities across the country are reporting low crime rates. In fact, violent crime in America is at historic lows.

Violent crimes in Dorchester and Mattapan, Massachusetts are down by 27-37 percent. Nationally, the story is the same but these companies would prefer that you didn’t know.

Three years ago, Reuters reported that violent crime in America was at 1970s levels. And not much has changed since then.

Last year, CBS News reported that violent crime in America is still at historic lows, saying it was far from the levels of the 1980s and 1990s.

LiveSafe’s website has a video of former U.S. Secretary of DHS, Tom Ridge, wishing the public would use their app. You know to keep Americans safe, wink, wink.

As you will see, it’s a huge red flag when DHS wishes that more Americans would use LiveSafe.

LiveSafe’s private intelligence company to send ‘fear reports’ to police

By mid-year 2018, LiveSafe will have created their own private intelligence company that sends ‘fear reports’ to law enforcement. (See above videos.)

LiveSafe has announced the Anteo Private Security Community, the first-ever private, peer-to-peer security community where trusted security and risk professionals from businesses and universities come together to share information and threat intelligence.(Source)

LiveSafe’s Anteo Community, is really a private corporate intelligence network that uses an app to gather public intelligence.

“The Anteo Community enhances our ability as security officials to collaborate by securely sharing specific threat or risk-related information, ” said Jim Cawley, Global Director of Corporate Security, Hearst.

DHS and law enforcement embrace private intelligence spying.

“The Anteo Community provides an opportunity to aggregate more sources and provide timely and relevant information that helps someone, somewhere, someplace hopefully avoid the perils associated with that risk, whatever it might be,” said Governor Tom Ridge, the first U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security.”

Law enforcement is using corporate ‘public safety’ apps to do an end run around the Fourth Amendment.

Just how bad is corporate app spying?

Thankfully LiveSafe has given us a clue, claiming that in the past eighteen months, two hundred enterprises, corporations and universities have convinced employees and students to use their app.

DHS and law enforcement encouraging corporations to spy on the public is illegal and must be stopped.

You can read more at the MassPrivateI blog, where this article first appeared.

Image credit: Pixabay