The rise of digital crime prevention tools
Apps give residents greater visibility of their homes and enhance control, but care must be taken to guard against digital snoopers
Fighting crime is big business. The size of SA’s private workforce of armed-response officers — some might say, private army — is 250% of the SA Police Service. And South Africans reportedly spend about R55bn/year on private security. But Fidelity ADT products manager Johan Joubert says the market is relatively saturated, growing at just 2.5% annually. The next big play for the firm is connecting "dumb" alarm systems to the Internet. Carel Wessels, chief technology officer of Fidelity Security Services, says this fits in with global trends of connecting buildings, the city and even vehicles. "That is where the world is going at a fast pace. We are also on this journey, connecting the home from a security perspective, putting cameras in it, making sure the customer has access to it via an app."
This means security systems now make it possible, for example, for homeowners to disable alarm systems remotely, and use mobile devices linked to cameras to watch as they open their secu...
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