Safe Haven

Empowering survivors to document the truth without leaving a trace. A tamper-proof evidence vault disguised as a clothing boutique to protect those living under digital surveillance.

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Inspiration

Phones and other electronic devices are often times not private or secure for domestic abuse victims. Overly controlling abusers often go through texts, journals, social media, photos, etc. making it difficult for abuse survivors to escape. Documentation of abuse and evidence of incidents are crucial in being able to seek legal action, and without secure places to store this evidence, victims often times cannot build a successful court case.

What it does

Safe Haven is a dual-purpose web application built for the safety and privacy of domestic abuse victims. On the surface it presents itself as Lumina Boutique, a women's apparel shopping website. Browsing it, you can see a catalog of clothing, prices, star ratings, and a category navigation bar, making it look and feel like a real online store. Under the ordinary exterior lays the true purpose, Safe Haven. Safe Haven is a private encrypted personal vault designed to be accessed discreetly through hidden triggers and a login page.

Once logged in, users can store evidence and document incidents they may need for a legal case. They can upload pictures and write down details of incidents. If they fear someone is watching or about to see their screen, users can quickly exit back to the store front page with two "panic button" options, clicking delete button 3 times or the esc button 2 times. There is also the regular exit and log out options.

How we built it

  • Using Google Cloud Platform and GitHub to collaborate, we created our website with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The "hidden triggers" and panic buttons were created using JavaScript.
  • We utilized Firebase Authentication for user login and account creation, and Firestore for saving uploaded files. These Firebase tools were integrated using CDN links directly in the HTML.
  • User passwords were encrypted with Web Crypto API before being stored in Firebase
  • Much of the base and design of the website were made with ideas from Google Antigravity.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into challenges with Firebase and Google Cloud Platform as it was new to us. It took us multiple hours to properly connect Firebase Authentication to our log in and account creation pages even though we thought it would be a simple process. The main struggle was with the API key. Even though we copied and pasted it, it would fail with no clear error message.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are most proud of all the successes we had with Firebase. It gave us the most trouble, but it was the most vital part of out website because it provided secure login and storage of documented incidents and photo evidence.

What we learned

We have learned how to use Firebase and GCP. We also gained experience utilizing Google Antigravity.

What's next for Safe Haven

Currently the Incident Logs page does not successfully encrypyt and save. If there were more time we would have liked to get that properly working. Additionally, we would like to add resources to help lines, shelters, foodbanks, etc.

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