The apps provide a myriad of functions, some focus on recording a victims story and saving it for use as evidence, while others record consent or a lack of consent and notify the individuals involved that the recordings have been saved.
As many of these systems are relatively new, and not particularly effective, there appears not to be other apps modeled off of these systems. The only similarities are within the apps themselves, suggesting that the company We-Consent developing many of these apps is using a similar format for each of them.
The article does not say how the apps were funded but the mention of government programs for sexual assault prevention on college campuses suggests the government was involved in funding some of the apps.
The system relies on the basic technical aspects of a smartphone, including a working camera, data, and the ability to access a contacts list. This suggests some form of partnership with the service providers of users phones, which is commonly the case with smartphone apps.
The article implies that no one is using many of the apps described, as they are not practical in reporting sexual assault and they are not being built with real consideration as to their use. While the article does suggest that some apps are promising, such as one that sends an SOS to a preset list of contacts, there is still very little evidence that this would be used rather than simply texting or calling one of those numbers.
The apps are noted in the article as ‘mostly homegrown’ and the technical capabilities show that to be the case. None of the apps described provide new function, but rather adapt a smartphones existing capabilities. The ability to record information, send information to another user, and send a group message already exist. The only special function supported in some of the apps is the automatic save of a recording to an otherwise inaccessible portion of the cloud.
These systems would all be difficult to use if the user was in a situation with a risk of sexual assault, although the apps claim to be for specifically these situations. If in a dangerous situation, spending time to open an app that may or may not be of help is not the best use of time.
The apps described were built to serve anyone who was a victim of sexual assault, which is not limited by demographics. One app was however aimed at college students, likely because there is a higher risk of sexual assault for that age range.
Users interact with the app through video recording in most cases, some of the apps prompt the user to speak and certain times while others are simply a way to send a help message to multiple people quickly. Many of the apps notify the user of a recording that proves they gave consent or that consent was specifically not given, as the apps purpose is to prevent sexual assault and awareness of a recording may prevent an incident from occurring.
The apps do not translate the data into information, in most cases they simply receive and store data which can be forwarded to the police under certain circumstances.