OTE GROUP

The OTE Group, keenly aware of the issue of the disappearance of our fellow human beings, decided to implement a social mobile app called "Missing Alert". The main goal of the app is to become that easy-to-use tool that every member of society can use to (a) be informed about people who have disappeared, (b) voluntarily contribute to finding them by sending a text message/photo/geolocation but also (c) to declare familiar persons with a high risk of disappearance proactively in order to speed up the process of reporting the disappearance and initiation of investigations by the Authorities and volunteers.

Users of the app are people who are interested in taking part in the investigation of missing persons as well as those who have people in their close environment at high risk of disappearance. People at high risk of extinction are people who are on medication, suffering from a serious organic disease that endangers their life, suffering from dementia/ mental problems/ psychological problems and diagnosed.

2019 - 2020

The idea of the Missing Alert app started from the Hackathon, COSMOTE's internal innovation competition, by a group of young people, who themselves experienced a disappearance in their family. The company undertook the design and implementation of the App, utilizing the expertise of Smile of the Child in matters of disappearances.

This innovative application for mobile phones helps so that everyone can contribute to the faster identification of missing persons with the help of technology and will be added to the tools already available to "The Smile of the Child", as well as the institutional co-competent bodies, for the prevention and management of each disappearance incident.

The Missing Alert app digitizes the missing person search process for both children and adults, up to 60 years old.

Users can download it to their mobile phone and help locate missing persons:

- receiving notifications on his mobile about the disappearances

- participating in surveys by sending information via chat

- mobilizing other volunteers in the same area, through social media

The application is managed by the agency's specialized team, which is responsible for every piece of information with the aim of evaluating and exploiting it to the maximum extent possible to immediately locate the wanted person.

COSMOTE leverages technology and innovation to create solutions and applications for a better world for everyone. In this context, it continuously supports the important work of "Smile of the Child", offering telecommunications services, infrastructures and technological solutions that facilitate the difficult work of the association for the care of children and dealing with cases of disappearance in Greece.

The smile of the child

The design and implementation of the app was done in close collaboration with the organization of Smile of the Child. From COSMOTE's point of view, a total of 30 employees from 10 business units participated, while volunteers from the Smile of the Child and future users gave directions for the necessary functions that the app must have and checked to what extent the final product meets their needs functionally and technically.

Hellas 

The benefits are:

• Society has an organized mechanism for the preventive protection of individuals at high risk of extinction.

• The announcement of a disappearance is issued faster and valuable time is saved for finding the missing person.

• The pool of people/volunteers who help in an extinction increases significantly. Anyone who downloads the app to their mobile phone can become a volunteer immediately.

• Not only the authorities participate in the search, nor the declared rescue groups. The entire set of citizens/volunteers who have the application on their mobile participates.

• Searching for a person is more effective if the person is being searched by more people.

• Notification of a disappearance is not only made by telephone as today, but also by means of photo, geolocation and text provided directly to the Police Department and, by extension, to the Authorities.
 

The Smile of the Child is the accredited organization that is responsible for the disappearances of adults and children and has close cooperation with the Authorities in their search. It offers many years of knowledge and experience in the field of disappearances as well as the necessary mechanisms for their search.

As a Voluntary Organization, however, it does not have the necessary expertise to create an app that serves its work in the field of disappearances.

At this point, the contribution of COSMOTE is evident, offering the implementation and technical support of the application