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Harassment of women: an app is no substitute for real safety
The Home Office has been trumpeting new phone software that allows a ‘guardian’ to track women’s movements in an attempt to protect them while out and about. LYNNE WALSH chats to the experts for their views

THE safety of women and girls, on our streets and public transport, has been a big news topic again recently, thanks in part to a controversial new app praised by the Home Office.

“Path” was briefly trumpeted by the government, before immediately being roundly criticised by women’s charities and campaigns.

This gizmo aims to get us to log our “loved ones” as “guardians” on our phones; we’re expected to post details of a journey, and if we deviated from that or stopped moving altogether, they’d be alerted. 

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