Samaritans suspends ‘radar app’ amid privacy concerns

The Samaritans charity has suspended an application that allowed people to anonymously monitor the tweets of others for signs of suicidal intent or mental distress.

Samaritans Radar allowed users to sign up for email notifications when anyone they followed on Twitter used certain keywords.

The monitoring took place without the knowledge of the person tweeting. About 4,300 people had signed up to use it by the middle of this week, allowing the monitoring of some 1.9 million Twitter accounts.

People who have had mental health conditions, as well as privacy campaigners and lawyers have been critical of the app since its launch last Wednesday. They highlighted their concerns using the Twitter hashtag #SamaritansRadar.

A number of people said they no longer felt safe on Twitter knowing of the app’s existence. Some highlighted what they said was its potential to become a tool for abuse.

In a statement this evening, Samaritans said it had made the decision to “suspend the application at this time for further consideration”.

This followed “the broad range of feedback and advice Samaritans has received since the launch”, including the serious concerns raised by some people with mental health conditions using Twitter.

“We care passionately about supporting vulnerable people in a range of ways, and know it is important we get Samaritans Radar right,” it added.

The charity said its primary concern was for anyone who may be struggling to cope, including those with mental health conditions.

“We are very aware that the range of information and opinion, which is circulating about Samaritans Radar, has created concern and worry for some people and would like to apologise to anyone who has inadvertently been caused any distress. This was not our intention.”

Samaritans said there was still “an important need which we have identified to find ways to support vulnerable people online, including those young people the app was primarily aimed at”.

It will now engage in further dialogue with “a range of partners”, including in the mental health sector, in order to evaluate the feedback and get further input.

The charity said it would test “a number of potential changes” to the app to make it “as safe and effective as possible for both subscribers and their followers”.

An online petition was started at the weekend urging the Samaritans to withdraw the app. Samaritans has over 2,000 branches across Ireland and Britain. There are about 20 branches and over 2,000 volunteers in Ireland.