Hazel Biana: SafeHer

Last month, Women at the Table hosted Dr. Hazel Biana, Professor of Philosophy at Manila’s De La Salle University in the second edition of our <AI & Equality> Open Studio series. Designed to highlight up and coming technological innovations, this Open Studio centered on SafeHer, a transit app designed by Biana and her team at De La Salle University’s Social Development Research Center to protect and empower women commuting on Manila’s transport system. 

Manila notoriously has one of the most dangerous public transit systems in the world for women, with upwards of 80% of women reporting instances harassment or sexual assault during their commutes. While there are various safety apps available to mitigate the crisis, most of them, Biana points out, are only useful after harassment has occurred. Instead of addressing the root cause of the issue, they take a victim-blaming lens that does nothing to prevent further problems. 

“They don’t really tackle the underlying issue of perpetrator’s violence against women. So the challenge for this project is how we can rethink AI models and make sure women are empowered through their remodeling” said Biana. 

Though SafeHer does include reactionary features, such as scream detection software, a safe word feature, and crash detection, it also has measures built in to pre-empt harassment. These features, including a buddy system to detect other solo commuters and a location sharing measure to see how many women are in the area, came about through in-depth communication with the team’s target target audience.

“I think the difference that this project has with other artificial intelligence projects is that it began with the thinking—the deep thinking—as to what women really need,” said Biana. 

Biana’s proactive approach to the app’s development included an online survey of 300 women commuters and in-depth focus group interviews. Through both quantitative and qualitative information gathering, Biana’s team learned how commuters chose vehicles, their normal safety precautions, and where they felt the system could be tangibly improved.

It was through these measures that they learned women felt better knowing whether there were other female commuters in their vicinity and wanted to know what routes were considered safe/unsafe. This feedback was integrated through the app’s geolocation features, and the inclusion of a crowdsourcing route database where commuters can rate the relative safety of certain areas. 

“Overall, the app aims to empower women, challenge victim blaming norms, and raise awareness of women’s safety concerns in transit,” Biana said. 

The app underwent Alpha testing in 2023, and is currently in the pilot testing phase. Despite the numerous features already included, Biana and her team are still trying to add more, such as a way to file police reports in-app immediately after harassment occurs. While the app is currently only being deployed in the area around De La Salle University during its pilot phase, Biana’s team hopes to expand it throughout the city of Pasig and eventually other Southeast Asian cities within a few years.