BuddyGuard

BuddyGuard is a next-generation safety application for smartphones. Like a human buddy system, BuddyGuard can be used in a variety of situations when a person’s safety confidence is low, such as domestic disputes, meeting strangers, online dating, exchanging goods and commerce, traveling abroad, medical aliments, walking alone at night, after a motor accident, and more. BuddyGuard works globally where cellular data or WiFi is available, and has been field tested by FOX News during the Libya civil war. Once activated, BuddyGuard begins streaming images, audio, and GPS location in real-time to secure servers in the cloud for access by your safety net during an emergency. No matter what happens to you or your device, the evidence is permanently stored in the cloud until you check in with your secure PIN code. When BuddyGuard has confirmed your well-being, all captured evidence (including your location) is permanently deleted from the servers and never shown to your safety net. If you do not check-in within the amount of time specified and after two-tiers of false alarm protection, BuddyGuard alerts your social safety of friends and family via email, SMS, interactive phone call with group conferencing, and optionally a geo-embedded status update on Facebook. For immediate emergency activation, a single tap of the SOS+ button or dropping the phone when impact detection is turned on will trigger an alert and begin streaming evidence. BuddyGuard is a free product and available for download on the iTunes AppStore. Android coming soon. Powered by Plerts BuddyGuard is provided by Plerts, Inc., a privately owned company building mobile safety products for consumers, businesses, universities, and government agencies. Plerts is headquartered in Austin, TX and backed by MPOWER Labs, a double-bottom line business accelerator whose mission is to empower the world’s undeserved. Plerts' personal alert platform is available for other developers, companies, and schools to use within their own apps. Our Plerts SDK makes it a breeze for anyone with an existing mobile app to unobtrusively add a SOS+ button in a matter of minutes for an added layer of peace of mind. Our development kit will be available as a free download in early November 2011. More information can be found at http://www.plerts.com.