A new app designed to improve women’s safety is gaining interest in France in the wake of the death of Philippine, a 19-year-old student whose body was found buried in a Paris wood on September 21.
The Economics student was last seen at a restaurant at the Paris Dauphine university on September 20, and was reported missing that evening after she failed to appear at her parents’ house in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
A day later, her body was found partially buried in the Bois de Boulogne in the 16th arrondissement. Investigations are ongoing and no arrests have been made.
Family and friends began searching in the woods after the student’s mobile phone was geolocalised to that location. Her family and friends also launched an alert through women’s safety app The Sorority, but Philippine herself had not been a member.
The app has now sent out a message on X (Twitter), saying “our thoughts go out to Philippine, her family, and her loved ones…we would like to thank everyone who mobilised and shared the information. We will do our best to keep you updated on the upcoming marches, actions, and vigils organised in her name. Thank you for being here, we take care of each other. Together.”
What is The Sorority app?
The free Sorority app allows members to send an alert to the 50 closest other members if they feel unsafe or at risk. The location of the member is identified via the phone’s GPS.
Once Philippine’s family and friends had raised the alarm, the app sent out a “wanted notice following her worrying disappearance to support her family and try to find her as quickly as possible”, it confirmed.
However, it added that because Philippine was not a member of the app, no alert had been sent at the exact (as yet unknown) time of her disappearance.
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‘We help people’
The Sorority app homepageJointhesorority.com / Screenshot
App founder Priscillia Routier-Trillard explains that once members receive an alert from another user, they can “either call the person directly, or send them a message suggesting that they notify the police or gendarmerie, or join them on the spot, pretending to know them, without ever putting themselves in danger”.
“We help people in the street, on public transport, in the office, at school, in the evening, at festivals or at home,” she said.
In March, one 18-year-old member said she had used the app after being followed in the street. She told AFP: “As soon as I pressed the alert button, I received a dozen texts and calls. In the end, one of the members joined me and gave me a lift home in her car.”
Sometimes simply receiving a call from someone and talking to them is enough to “diffuse the situation”, members have said.
In another example, one user wrote: “Hello, all is well, I was being followed outside by three men but I managed to get home safely [and] I was happy to be put in contact with many women around me, I was reassured and able to chat with someone while I was getting home.”
Police partnership
The Sorority app currently has 115,000 users, founder Ms Routier-Trillard states, and works in partnership with the police to “raise awareness of our tool among police officers and gendarmes through training courses”.
"When a person in a situation of domestic violence is unable to contact the authorities directly, they raise the alarm on the app. If they agree, we transmit all the information to the [emergency number] 17 for immediate intervention,” said Ms Routier-Trillard.
Interior Minister Charlotte Huntz told FranceInfo: “To ensure that The Sorority system is effective, our staff have been made aware of the need for immediate intervention.”
Visuals of the app are displayed in all police stations, to raise awareness.
App users
“In Paris, there are 17,000 users, so there are people available just one street away,” Ms Routier-Trillard said. There are also an increasing number of users in rural areas.
Women can join The Sorority from the age of 12 with parental consent, although 73% of users are aged between 18 and 35. The average age of members is 30, the app states.
Users are required to take a selfie in real time and provide proof of identity to join the community, with profiles then being verified before the application is confirmed.
The app is also available to French citizens abroad, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is also available in 13 other languages including English.
“Thousands of kilometres away from our loved ones, we [may be] completely dependent on a violent person, who may also be an employer,” said Ms Routier-Trillard. “Our application is available worldwide and translated into 13 languages. Even local populations can use it.”
Similar apps
The Sorority is not the only application of its kind to work with the police.
Another such example is a free app called Umay, which lists “safe places” for users (men and women) in case they feel threatened and need somewhere to go. This includes 3,200 gendarmeries and 600 police stations, but also 6,000 other establishments, including bars, restaurants, shops and other institutions.
During the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the app also developed a partnership with national lottery operator and official Olympics partner La Française des Jeux to label many local bars, tabacs, and newsagents as “safe places”.
It also provided training courses for staff “on how to deal with situations of aggression, and in particular sexist and sexual violence”.
