Google has stepped out of its technology cocoon and gone into social responsibility with plans to launch a new global hotline network that will expose the illegitimate networks involved in human trafficking, according to CNet.
Human Trafficking is a global concern with more than 20 million people its victims. Traffickers make billions out of this illegal trade every year. Google has extended its support to fight this devastating illegal trade. Google initiated the new joint project with three major organizations namely: Polaris Project, Liberty Asia, and La Strada International.
These agencies will work together to set up a combined network, which will collect data from across the world through its global human trafficking hotline network. The agencies will co-ordinate with all local, regional and national anti-trafficking help lines and set up a common platform where all data will be accumulated, streamlining the access to all information pertaining to the crime.
In a Google official blog post yesterday, Jared Cohen, Director of Google Ideas and Jacquelline Fuller, Director of Google Giving, wrote about the current impact of the illicit trade, which affects more than 20 million people around the world and generates more than $32 billion each year.
"At last summer's Google Ideas summit on mapping, disrupting and exposing illicit networks, it became clear that connecting anti-trafficking helplines in a global data sharing collaboration could help identify illicit patterns and provide victims anywhere in the world with more effective support," Cohen and Fuller wrote.
Google has effortlessly worked with Polaris Project, Liberty Asia, and La Strada International to provide aid to all the victims across the United States and the Mekong Delta region and Europe, according to the Google's official blog. With the launch of the new project, these organizations will accumulate data from all local hotlines and based on this the agencies will create anti-trafficking strategies and provide protection to the victims.
Furthermore, Palantir Technologies will add its insights with its "data integration and analytics platform for this project."
"Together, these partners will not only be able to help more trafficking survivors, but will also move the global conversation forward by dramatically increasing the amount of useful data being shared," the blog continued. "Appropriate data can tell the anti-trafficking community which campaigns are most effective at reducing slavery, what sectors are undergoing global spikes in slavery, or if the reduction of slavery in one country coincides with an increase right across the border."
Google presented a $3 million Google Impact Award to all three joint advocacy organizations for their anti-trafficking efforts. Google has till date given $14.5 million in grants towards the cause.
