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Fri Jul 1, 2016, 01:17 AM

Liberal_in_LA (44,397 posts)

Snapping a picture of your hotel room could help stop human trafficking

Snapping a picture inside your hotel room could help protect children across the globe.

The TraffickCam app enables travelers to submit pictures of hotel rooms around the world. The images are matched against a national database used by police.

“You just enter your hotel name and your room number. You take four pictures, and you submit them to the website,” Washington University Researcher and TraffickCam developer Abby Stylianou said. “And then those become part of the pipeline that law enforcement can use to track down where the victims are being trafficked.”

Stylianou was among the speakers at a Human Trafficking Town Hall at Maritz Tuesday.

“Right now there are pictures posted every day. Hundreds of pictures, in every city around the United States, posted online, that show victims of trafficking, in hotel rooms posed on beds,” she said.

http://fox2now.com/2016/06/22/snapping-a-picture-of-your-hotel-room-could-help-stop-human-trafficking/

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24 replies	Author	Time	Post
Snapping a picture of your hotel room could help stop human trafficking (Original post)	Liberal_in_LA	Jul 2016	OP
This organization should start extracting data/photos from	MADem	Jul 2016	#1
I use trip advisor extensively.	LittleGirl	Jul 2016	#2
Don't like the officer they interview saying "our girls that we work with "	AllyCat	Jul 2016	#3
And it sounds as though he means "girls" quite literally.	Mister Ed	Jul 2016	#4
Make sure to point out	Darb	Jul 2016	#9
Not "irrelevant shit". Language and words have power	AllyCat	Jul 2016	#12
I don't understand the problem. The victims are girls.	yardwork	Jul 2016	#19
"our girls". The rescuers do not own the girls.	AllyCat	Jul 2016	#21
Interesting. Additionally...	Orrex	Jul 2016	#23
I think in this case it's legit because he literally means girls.	kcr	Jul 2016	#15
I know this meant well	Aerows	Jul 2016	#5
Really? Don't help the authorities stop underage sexual trafficing because of your privacy	FSogol	Jul 2016	#6
True, but it is a bit more meaningful than, say,	Quantess	Jul 2016	#7
What does this action reveal?	Darb	Jul 2016	#10
They aren't asking you to take photos of your personal things, just the room.	yardwork	Jul 2016	#20
This is a great idea!	tallahasseedem	Jul 2016	#8
Why don't hotels do this themselves? They probably worry about their good names, but to pretend	Brickbat	Jul 2016	#11
Great idea!	AllyCat	Jul 2016	#13
Probably not good advertisement to identity ones hotel with illicit activity	Liberal_in_LA	Jul 2016	#17
Which is...what I said, but people can market anything.	Brickbat	Jul 2016	#18
This is very important	IronLionZion	Jul 2016	#14
I posted this on my FB and my friend responded with this -	Justice	Jul 2016	#16
K & R	Quantess	Jul 2016	#22
Thank you!	JustAnotherGen	Jul 2016	#24

Response to Liberal_in_LA (Original post)

Fri Jul 1, 2016, 01:38 AM

MADem (135,425 posts)

1. This organization should start extracting data/photos from

review websites like Trip Advisor and even proprietary hotel chain websites. A lot of people put hotel room pics up on those type of websites.

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Response to MADem (Reply #1)

Fri Jul 1, 2016, 03:39 AM

LittleGirl (6,105 posts)

2. I use trip advisor extensively.

great idea.

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Response to Liberal_in_LA (Original post)

Fri Jul 1, 2016, 03:53 AM

AllyCat (12,074 posts)

3. Don't like the officer they interview saying "our girls that we work with "

Sounds really bad. Downloaded the app.

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Response to AllyCat (Reply #3)

Fri Jul 1, 2016, 04:43 AM

Mister Ed (3,790 posts)

4. And it sounds as though he means "girls" quite literally.

He said detectives are noticing an increase in younger victims.

“The average age, when we talk to our girls that we deal with, most of them have started at 13, 14 years old. And most of them have been sexually abused as children,” he said.

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Response to AllyCat (Reply #3)

Fri Jul 1, 2016, 09:59 AM

Darb (2,807 posts)

9. Make sure to point out

irrelevant shit like that every chance you get. That person is doing good work, yet the perfect police can always find fault in the good, even the great.

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Response to Darb (Reply #9)

Fri Jul 1, 2016, 10:39 AM

AllyCat (12,074 posts)

12. Not "irrelevant shit". Language and words have power

Microaggressions will not stand. Of course they are doing good work. But we must learn how we speak and act about things help perpetuate some of the same things we are fighting.

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Response to AllyCat (Reply #12)

Sat Jul 2, 2016, 09:09 AM

yardwork (52,193 posts)

19. I don't understand the problem. The victims are girls.

I'm the first to speak up when people refer to women as girls, but in this case the victims are literally girls.

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Response to yardwork (Reply #19)

Sat Jul 2, 2016, 01:19 PM

AllyCat (12,074 posts)

21. "our girls". The rescuers do not own the girls.

Putting the possessive "our" in front of girls is not okay.

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Response to AllyCat (Reply #21)

Sun Jul 3, 2016, 01:02 PM

Orrex (59,573 posts)

23. Interesting. Additionally...

"It was a photo that they had from the internet," Nix Principal Molly Hackett said. "One of the girls in our office knew exactly what it was."

(emphasis mine)

Microaggressions will not stand.

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Response to AllyCat (Reply #3)

Fri Jul 1, 2016, 11:56 PM

kcr (14,112 posts)

15. I think in this case it's legit because he literally means girls.

I understand because that's something that bugs me too.

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Response to Liberal_in_LA (Original post)

Fri Jul 1, 2016, 05:28 AM

Aerows (39,961 posts)

5. I know this meant well

but we give up entirely too much information as it is.

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Response to Aerows (Reply #5)

Fri Jul 1, 2016, 05:34 AM

FSogol (40,693 posts)

6. Really? Don't help the authorities stop underage sexual trafficing because of your privacy

of someone else's hotel?

No words.

x ∞

You really should self-delete.

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Response to Aerows (Reply #5)

Fri Jul 1, 2016, 05:41 AM

Quantess (27,630 posts)

7. True, but it is a bit more meaningful than, say,

Checking in at the gym on facebook, or posting instagram photos of your food, or a duck-lips selfie.

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Response to Aerows (Reply #5)

Fri Jul 1, 2016, 10:00 AM

Darb (2,807 posts)

10. What does this action reveal?

That you are staying in that room? Or stayed in that room? That's not a big worry I do not think.

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Response to Aerows (Reply #5)

Sat Jul 2, 2016, 09:10 AM

yardwork (52,193 posts)

20. They aren't asking you to take photos of your personal things, just the room.

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Response to Liberal_in_LA (Original post)

Fri Jul 1, 2016, 09:22 AM

tallahasseedem (6,716 posts)

8. This is a great idea!

It only takes a few items for them to directly match and develop at pattern. Whatever helps!

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Response to Liberal_in_LA (Original post)

Fri Jul 1, 2016, 10:02 AM

Brickbat (19,339 posts)

11. Why don't hotels do this themselves? They probably worry about their good names, but to pretend

this doesn't happen is asinine. They're the ones on the front lines. Airlines have started educating flight attendants on warning signs that someone may be a trafficking victim; hotels could jump on this as well.

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Response to Brickbat (Reply #11)

Fri Jul 1, 2016, 10:40 AM

AllyCat (12,074 posts)

13. Great idea!

Another idea I heard was that people using Trip Advisor should push for such a movement/app/action

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Response to Brickbat (Reply #11)

Sat Jul 2, 2016, 03:01 AM

Liberal_in_LA (44,397 posts)

17. Probably not good advertisement to identity ones hotel with illicit activity

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Response to Liberal_in_LA (Reply #17)

Sat Jul 2, 2016, 08:50 AM

Brickbat (19,339 posts)

18. Which is...what I said, but people can market anything.

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Response to Liberal_in_LA (Original post)

Fri Jul 1, 2016, 03:35 PM

IronLionZion (31,904 posts)

14. This is very important

It's incredible how much image data can be aggregated from lots of ordinary people who really can make a difference.

This would be especially important in finding hotel rooms that are unique, independent, or have something in their look that differentiates them in order to find out where it is. Some hotel chains have partnered with law enforcement on finding out how to spot human trafficking and report it. I would hope hotel owners and workers would also submit images.

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Response to Liberal_in_LA (Original post)

Sat Jul 2, 2016, 01:40 AM

Justice (6,822 posts)

16. I posted this on my FB and my friend responded with this -

"So, I understand, at least from NCMEC's persepective, this doesn't help. Most trafficking photos aren't taken in hotel rooms, especially the types of hotel rooms business travelers are likely to encounter. Although NCMEC does use PhotoDNA to digitally compare photos to look for backgrounds that will help track down traffickers, they have easy access to Trip Advisor which has photos of pretty much every hotel room in the country. A friend expressed concern that this app doesn't really have the potential to help as much as it harvests your personal information. Thoughts?"

I could not find a comment from NCMEC about this? Any help from DUers to respond to my friend?

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Response to Liberal_in_LA (Original post)

Sun Jul 3, 2016, 11:51 AM

Quantess (27,630 posts)

22. K & R

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Response to Liberal_in_LA (Original post)

Sun Jul 3, 2016, 04:06 PM

JustAnotherGen (27,256 posts)

24. Thank you!

I will do this.

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