Communication and #PinkDay
Today, we don’t need to know anyone personally or even within a certain location – #pinkday. Bullying has moved online and although we cannot control every area of another person’s digital footprint, organisations and companies must protect those that interact with their platforms.
We’ve seen it over and over again. Hollywood made icons from the drab, different and unusual. The opening sequence “the cool kids” are together, dressed in fashion forward clothes accompanied by an extremely priced mode of transport that would be a certain cause for envy.
Bullying in the ’90s is not the same as being bullied today in 2020. Bullying used to be defined in terms of physical or verbal abuse with the impact of having emotional and mental repercussions. It could have been anything from a shove, hitting, kicking to public humiliation such as hazing, harassment or name-calling, teasing, taunting or hurling insults that would leave you in a cold sweat.
Cyberbullying or cyber harassment would be indicative of any use of electronic means used to solicit a sense of fear when being harassed, threatened or humiliated. The schoolyard and street corners have moved online to technology. No longer limiting abuse to a time and location. Bullying can now follow us on our smart device and reach has extended globally and have future repercussions. Emma Sadleir’s talks have left me both shocked and cautious to participate online as she educates students and parents on the risks of participating in the digital domain.
Communication channels at School
As communication is clearly moving to more instant digital platforms that are easily accessible for students, parents and teachers during #COVID-19 Grape and it’s client realised that there were many risks that needing addressing moving to consumer-based platforms such as WhatsApp and Messengers for school.
Firstly, teachers require to share their private phone numbers with parents and students and also vice versa in order to participate without much choice. This has raised many concerns around privacy and also leaves the door wide open for the potential for bullying not only between classmates and leaving a teacher exposed for parents too.
Communication Channels at Work
The risk for business is equally high when using open messenger services, compromising themselves and also their customers as the potential for scammers wanting to commit fraud by using personal information and gaining access to conversations and other useful. information shared on these platforms.
POPIA & GDPR Compliant
Obsidian Systems has partnered with Grape as this is one of the many benefits of this innovative app that allows teachers and students to be able to learn online and still be safe. One High School teacher said: “As I’m automatically part of all conversations, I can monitor students and – in case of any misconduct – react swiftly.” The Untis Messenger allows teachers to create virtual classrooms that synchronise students automatically. You can also secure your data and be POPI and GDPR-compliant and protect teachers and students by hosting it on your own server, and unusual feature for this kind of application.
Integration Is Key
Grape also integrates into any of your applications and tools using an embedding solution for seamless communication within your systems. Regardless of your systems, the open API allows for any teams and groups to be able to communicate seamlessly within any app you use.
Search and Find
If you’ve ever struggled to find something in your chat history Grape’s secure application allows for interfaces with your databases and you can find anything even from all devices. “Old archive, built-in 1984? No problem! Five different Dropbox instances, seven Network drives and one SharePoint file system? We got you covered! Grape means consolidation of communication and data, that’s where we shine.”
Does anyone remember the app La-La, an app for messaging only in chat in song snippets? Not many do. However, teams talk and messenger tools are here to stay for everyone. The question is have you thought carefully through your choices when considering security, personal information compliance, integration and cross-functional communication? Talk to us!
by Angela Ho