When someone mentions the word data, privacy might be the word you think of next.
It seems like every day we hear about another data breach or hack that involves someone stealing our personal information.
But instead of someone using that data for bad, what if someone could use it for good?
Just imagine, a computer, monitoring everything you post online, and intervening when it thinks you’re in danger.
It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie, but it’s happening here in the present, thanks to a team at Facebook.
The new tool uses an algorithm to track down buzzwords and phrases that are commonly associated with suicide.
Once these phrases are found in a person’s posts an alert is sent out to Facebook’s Safety Center.
“If it reaches a certain level the tool will notify an actual person,” says Dr. Dan Reidenberg, executive director of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education.
Dr. Reidenberg is one of a handful of experts who helped Facebook develop this new tool.
“This data is literally trying to save lives,” Reidenberg says.
The company says the new tool has already intervened more than 3,500 times.
These interventions may include a worker at Facebook’s Safety Center reaching out to the person and offering resources and support but may also include contacting local authorities if the situation is serious enough.
“The technology itself isn’t going to send somebody to their house. A person at Facebook would have to do that,” Reidenberg says.
So far Reidenberg hasn’t heard of any local cases, but he says another suicide prevention tool on Facebook recently saved a teenage girl in Saint Paul.
“Her friends were concerned, and they reported it through Facebook’s suicide reporting tool and Facebook reached out to law enforcement who were able to get her to the hospital and saved her life.”
Reidenberg understands why some people might be leery of this new tool. He says data privacy and security are major concerns these days, but he applauds Facebook for what it’s trying to do.