Nowadays, it’s a safe bet that if one is near an area of disaster, one would most probably want to notify their loved ones about their whereabouts. Facebook has turned its attention to this and have come up with a “Safety Check” feature as a result. In essence, the Safety Check feature allows a user to notify their friends on Facebook that they’re alright when in close proximity to disaster zones.
In order for Facebook’s Safety Check feature to work, the user will have to enable location services as well as have an active internet connection. As an example, the location will be determined by Facebook through checking the city which the user has listed in his or her profile and also through the city where the user has an active internet connection if a natural disaster occurs in the area or nearby vicinity. If Facebook determines the user is close to danger, Facebook will leave a notification to ask if said user is all right. In the Safety Check menu, users will be presented with an option to determine if the user is safe or not. Other details such as the number of friends that are in the affected area, the number of friends that are marked safe as well and those who have yet to affirm their safety, are additional statistics that Safety Check will display.
As for those users that fear their privacy being breached by using this feature, the user’s status and location will only be visible to your friends on Facebook.
If Facebook friends are in the area of the disaster, the user will be notified when they have marked themselves as safe. Tapping on the notification will bring users to a more detailed page that will display a list of Safety Check updates.
Here’s a video demonstrating the new feature in action:
[Source: Facebook]
