Download your hotel pic and save a sex slave

[msomnipotent]

https://traffickcam.com/about

I read about this the other day and thought it was a good idea. The premise is that you add a picture of your hotel room to their database with the hotel name and location, and they try to match it with ads for sex slaves in the hopes of arriving before the smuggler leaves.

http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/06/25/traffickcam-app-fights-human-trafficking-with-crowdsourced-photos-of-hotel-rooms/

TraffickCam app fights human trafficking with crowdsourced photos of hotel rooms

Michael Crider
Jun 25, 2016
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Each year in the US, it's estimated that somewhere between ten and twenty thousand people are victims of human trafficking, mostly for some form of prostitution or abusive labor. A disproportionate amount of these victims are women, children, and immigrants. Law enforcement agencies and non-profit groups all over the country attempt to stop the trade of human lives, but the clandestine nature of the operators and the cooperation of apparently legitimate businesses makes actual tracking and prosecution difficult, and only a tiny fraction of the estimated victims are freed.


TraffickCam is a new app that tries to create a powerful tool for those fighting human trafficking. Since traffickers often make use of hotels and motels along the major highway and interstate commerce routes, sometimes even posting photos of their victims online for prospective buyers and johns, being able to identify a specific hotel is a huge asset. TraffickCam asks its users to take photos of hotel and motel rooms where they stay, allowing the service to create a searchable database. This will (hopefully) allow law enforcement to identify where a photo of a trafficking victim was taken - the combination of room layout, furnishings, window views, wall decoration, or even bedspreads might make all the difference.


TraffickCam is developed by the Exchange Initiative, a Missouri-based group dedicated to fighting the sexual exploitation of children. The app is simple to use: take one to four photos of your hotel room, submit the hotel name and room number, and upload the images. (For the sake of privacy, it might be smart to wait until your stay is over to actually submit said photos). Exchange Initiative then uses the photos, which are given with an implied Creative Commons license, to build a database which investigators can search to track down human trafficking sites and hopefully find patterns in the behavior and locations of traffickers.

The app is free on Android and iOS, and there's a browser-based version as well if you'd like to use TraffickCam without the app or on an unsupported platform.

[disneysteve]

I do a fair amount of traveling and I can tell you that a room in a Courtyard Marriott looks virtually the same in any city in America. Most of the major chains have worked hard in recent years to homogenize their offerings so that guests know what to expect.

I suppose if you're staying at flea bag motels, this might be more useful, but not for the name brand places.

[StormRichards]

I do a fair amount of traveling and I can tell you that a room in a Courtyard Marriott looks virtually the same in any city in America. Most of the major chains have worked hard in recent years to homogenize their offerings so that guests know what to expect.

I suppose if you're staying at flea bag motels, this might be more useful, but not for the name brand places.

That was my first thought when I read the thread, but since I didn't click on the links I didn't want to make such a statement.

Has there been any success with this app?

[msomnipotent]

I do a fair amount of traveling and I can tell you that a room in a Courtyard Marriott looks virtually the same in any city in America. Most of the major chains have worked hard in recent years to homogenize their offerings so that guests know what to expect.

I suppose if you're staying at flea bag motels, this might be more useful, but not for the name brand places.

That still helps. If they were seen in a certain area and a picture pops up with Courtyard Marriott curtains, they know where to go. But somehow I doubt sleazebags are going to spring for a Marriott.

[msomnipotent]

That was my first thought when I read the thread, but since I didn't click on the links I didn't want to make such a statement.

Has there been any success with this app?

I'm not sure. This is a relatively new app. Their FB page seemed to imply that they were involved in Superbowl Sunday sting.

I posted it because I thought it was interesting, and an easy way to do something good. I'm going to be doing it while we are on our trip.