In an age where computer and network surveillance are the hot-button issues of the day, JF2 have jumped into the fray with their new app Folr, free to acquire and available for iOS and Android. Folr is a real time, permission based tracking device that utilises GPS, allowing you to trace the whereabouts of children, husbands, boyfriends, friends and the elderly. Or indeed anyone in your contact list who you might care to spy on. Of course, this is not quite ‘1984′; the key phrase in the app’s full title is ‘permission based’. Folr requires the other party to consent to being watched, and in turn they are given the opportunity to watch you back if they wish.
So Folr has quite a few, varied applications and is marketed primarily at women. So let’s get the obvious one out of the way first; safety. The area where Folr is really going to shine and be a most attractive package to women is child welfare. The peace of mind that must come from being able to check up on your kids whenever you feel like it is certain to be an invaluable tool for most parents. When Mum and Dad are at work, children are often left in the hands of a carer or nanny. Folr gives concerned parents the ability to make sure their kids are where their supposed to be at all times during the day. This is also applicable to sons and daughters who want to check up on their elderly parents, who may be living alone or also in the hands of a carer.
As the kids get older and go off to school, Mum can continue keeping tabs on their after-school whereabouts to make sure they’re going straight to wherever they’re meant to be. Though I’m sure there will come a time when the kids want to shed their parents’ watchful eyes, for babies and younger children this app really is a winner. This is also great to keep tabs on friends too, for seeing when they’re around your part of town and surprising them with a visit.
The slightly greyer area is other halves; the press release mentions that well-worn, loaded phrase ‘business trips’, conjuring up all sorts of shady images. Of course boyfriends and husbands have to allow their wives to watch them, but with objection comes inevitable suspicion. Not that this works one way, it could easily be a concerned, housebound boyfriend that wants to keep tabs on his girlfriend on her own business trip or weekend away. Again, the security that can come with checking in to ensure a loved one is safe cannot be overstated, but there is potential danger for a relationship here. Then again, you might say that a relationship where partners want to keep their movements secret is in a great deal of danger anyway, so at the end of the day, each to their own! All in all Folr is a genuinely useful and smart app (in a field of genuine redundancy) that will bring peace of mind to parents, partners and friends wherever they are. And that is no small thing.
