An app to help you stay safe this festive season

With the festive season upon us and long lists of places to visit and things to do, Parkview resident and director of ttrumpet, an anti-crime app, offers tips to follow to stay safe this festive season.

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“While we are out exploring and making sure that we make memories to last us a lifetime, be mindful of your safety and security, ensuring that your family is at ease by knowing your whereabouts at all times,” Murray said.

The ttrumpet app has been designed to allow customers to make free calls and send free messages worldwide. It is a comprehensive platform for merchants, businesses and brands to market themselves using a range of tools, including vouchers, online shopping, location or attraction searches, image recognition and augmented reality (a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view.)

Murray added that the new technology could bring community members closer to their families through cellphone apps such as ttrumpet.

“The objective of the safety and security elements on the app is aimed at making citizens feel safer with the additional capabilities of measuring the impact of crime within their area and to keep South Africa safer through technology – while they enjoy the festivities,” he added.

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Murray said the platform was not a security app, but rather a tool used to connect individuals in communities, and is designed to give community members and their family the ability to use the real-time messaging feature to help them stay safe.

Murray added a few tips to remember, to help the community navigate this time of year, easier and far safer by:

• Only using location services when necessary (or an app like ttrumpet, which is completely private), and do not share your location with strangers
• Alerting others on the security channel in your area if you see any suspicious activity or random cars parked on the side of the road. A simple alert could save an individual
• Not sharing your private pictures with strangers, as they always end up on the Internet
• Considering the consequences of social media posts, both from a reputational and security perspective
• Investigating the app you would like to download first; make sure it’s a real app that is well used
• When going out, let someone close to you know, and, if you are ever in any trouble, use your app’s panic button, which sends an alert to your identified contacts, alerting them of any distress. They can also follow your route, via the ‘tag me’ functionality.

“Staying safe is going to be a priority for all during the fast-approaching festive season. Make it easy and use your mobile and ttrumpet app to help keep you in touch and safe,” concluded Murray.

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