New Delhi:
HIMMAT- a mobile application for the safety of women- has been made more secure and user-friendly.
The app’s data is now stored on the National Informatics Centre (NIC) cloud storage. Earlier, it used to be uploaded on a foreign cloud.
The app contains cellphone numbers of women and earlier this data was being stored on Amazon cloud storage, said a senior police officer.
“There is always a fear that with your data being available on a foreign platform, it might be hacked into or misused. However, now with the data being uploaded on the NIC cloud, the data is more secure since it is on the Indian government’s getaway,” he added.
The app was launched in 2015 on the Amazon cloud.
Recently, it was relaunched with more user-friendly features, including an easier registration process.
The data was recently transferred on the NIC getaway from the foreign getaway.
Explaining about the delay in getting on the NIC platform, the officer said that it requires a lot of security checks.
“The NIC getaway has multi-layer security checks. The app shouldn’t have bugs. Over a period of two years, we fulfilled all the requirements, made the app more secure and recently got a go-ahead from the NIC,” he said.
Launched around two years ago, the app found few takers.
The officer said it was felt that the registration process for the app needed to be made simpler and it should also cater to the Hindi-speaking women.
Earlier, for registration on the app, one had to fill 13, 14 fields which included sharing details of travel routes, office address, etc. and the user also had to provide five emergency contact numbers.
These fields have now been reduced to six and before the registration, one has the option of choosing a preferred language—Hindi or English.
