bracelets

Anti-abuse bracelets were going to be a technical solution to a social problem. They are generating chaos of incidents

by

The Cometa system, which manages anti-abuse control bracelets, registered this Tuesday a new technical incident which ended up causing an overload of the service for several hours. The ruling forced the Ministry of Equality to implement the emergency protocol to guarantee the safety of the approximately 4,500 women who use these devices. In recent months, these bracelets have been the talk of the town. the problems that have caused. And while they promised to solve a big problem, they are also generating other parallels. What exactly has gone wrong. This last problem has been located in a router that distributes alert messages according to the type of incident (entry into exclusion zones, manipulation of the device, low battery, etc.). According to Equality, around 10% of these messages has generated incidents recurring events that have collapsed the system. The failure was detected at 4:30 in the morning and the service did not regain stability until 5:25 p.m., although complete normalization did not arrive until 9:00 p.m. During this time, the panic button, emergency calls and Bluetooth alerts remained operational, according to informed the ministry. The Government’s response. From the moment the incident was detected, the protocol planned for these situations was activated: the 4,500 users of the service received text messages informing them of the problem and the Security Forces and Bodies were alerted to reinforce surveillance. Minister Ana Redondo and the Government delegate against Gender Violence, Carmen Martínez-Perza, traveled to the headquarters of the Cometa service and maintained direct contact with the Vodafone-Securitas UTE, the company responsible for the system. “No victim has been unprotected at any time during these hours of crisis,” has assured Round in a message spread through social networks. A device that accumulates problems. This incident comes just two months after the State Attorney General’s Office uncovered an even more serious mistake: During the transfer of management from Telefónica to Vodafone, access to the geolocation data of hundreds of attackers was lost for several months. This caused, according to the annual report of the Prosecutor’s Office, “a large number” of dismissals and acquittals in cases of violation of restraining orders, since the judges could not have the necessary evidence. That episode generated a strong political controversy, with the PP asking for resignation de Redondo, who defended that the victims were never in danger and criticized the “lack of prudence” of the Prosecutor’s Office in making the ruling public without providing concrete data. A technology in question. What was presented at the time as an effective technological solution to protect victims of gender violence is showing that it also has important limitations. The Government has announced that the next tender for the service, scheduled for spring, will include “technical improvements” and that an audit is currently being carried out to check whether Vodafone is complying with the contract. “We will investigate until the end and, if necessary, we will take appropriate action,” has warned Round. Beyond technology. Despite the incidents, anti-abuse bracelets continue to be considered a valuable tool. Since their implementation in 2009, no woman wearing one of these devices has been murdered. The ministry insists that the protection system goes beyond technology and includes an “institutional network” of professionals that guarantees the safety of victims. However, we have also witnessed that technology fails, and it is precisely in these cases that we must prevent this from happening at all times. Cover image | EFE (Herbert Neubauer) and National Police In Xataka | How to share location with your entire family permanently with your mobile

Why have the ‘antimaltrate bracelets’ become controversial

by

The Antimaltrate ‘braceletsfundamental piece for the control of people with removal orders for cases of gender violence, they star a controversial anger In Spain. A ruling during data dump during the change of winning in 2024 has unleashed the debate on the operation of the system in our country, where there are assets more than 4,500 of these devices. What happened? That the ‘antimaltrate’ bracelets and the Comet systemthe person in charge of his follow -up is in the center of a sour controversy. Sour and delicate because it questions the real efficacy of a device that in theory must ensure the safety of victims of gender violence, guaranteeing that their aggressors respect the departure orders imposed by the courts. It is not the first time that the police warns of the failures on the bracelets, but this time the controversy has reached a special impact, which has generated An intense debate And he has forced so much to Ministry of Equality as to the State Attorney General to move token in an attempt to calm the spirits. After all, he has not only walked the political arena. Especially (and much more important) has sown doubts about the proper functioning of the system. Where does the controversy come from? One of the keys is in an apparently innocuous document, the Annual Report of the Prosecutor’s Office. It speaks of the fact that during a certain period of 2024 there was a “potential unprotection of the victims” of gender violence, an “anomaly” that could have “consequences” both for the instruction phase in the courts and in the judgments themselves, “causing a large amount of provisional dismissals or absolute failures.” The reason for this apparent failure should be sought in a change that affected the system in 2024. And what exactly changed? The company that is responsible for telematic follow -up. Before it was Telefónica, which resorted to the services of Securitas Direct. In 2023, however, the contract was assumed by Vodafone and Securitas. The Revelo announced it In October The operator itself, which specified that the agreement was closed for 42.6 million euros for a period of three years. The change of company could have remained at the foot of the Ministry, but demanded a dump of data between suppliers that, supposedly, The country requirescaused that for a while There would be no information on the movements of people with ‘antimaltrate’ bracelets. That is the episode referred to by the Prosecutor’s Office. And the origin of a controversy that has not stopped growing. Click on the image to go to Tweet. How serious was it? The real scope of that “anomaly”, In the words of the Public Ministryit has been completed little by little, although it differs depending on the source that is consulted. Data migration between suppliers was completed to End of March 2024so the first question is … How long was monitoring altered? And above all, to what extent did it affect the protection of victims? Equality speaks only of “dysfunctions” during the “data itinerance” between suppliers and clarifies that these were solved in 2024 without having a relevant impact. “Information could not be obtained at a specific time of the procedure, but the device worked to control compliance with the aggressor’s departure order with respect to the victim. The problem was turned out at the end of 2024. and in fact in 2025 no incidence has been recorded.” What does the Prosecutor’s Office say? Despite the forcefulness of its annual report, yesterday the State Attorney General’s Calm the spirits clarifying that “the victims were protected at all times.” “The devices worked,” he emphasizes. On the possible acquittals, he says they were “minimal”, which coincides with the government’s message. In A statement Published on Thursday, it argues that the provisional dismissals “were reopened” as soon as the data was recovered and that it was the control center itself that was responsible for sending them to the courts. “The information required by the courts could not be obtained in a specific period of time, but we insist that the device worked. Only 1% of the requests for information prior to March 2024 could not finally be attended,” They add from the Ministry of Equality in statements a The country. How much did the problem last? Today The confidential revealsciting several reports from the Cometa Control Center, that the problems with the bracelets were extended at least eight months of 2024. Specifically, it refers to a February document and another September in which incidents refer. Not just that. Yesterday the same newspaper reported That the observatory against domestic and gender violence has already warned in January 2024 to the Ministry of Risks that, in their opinion, supposed the new ‘antimaltrate’ bracelets after the change of supplier. “We warn him. We warned him that this service did not have the guarantees,” María Ángeles Carmona insistswho then presided over the body. “We did not see that the new system was to work. Among other things because Vodafone had no previous experience in controlling this kind of devices.” Their statements are less surprising if one takes into account that in 2023, during the administrative process to change the service provider, Equality has already given a poor note to the new winner in the section called ‘Transition Plan’: he assigned a 3.6 out of 10, according to It reveals today The country. That’s all? No. The controversy has focused the focus on the renovation of bracelets that caused the change of award. In June the police He already warned of failures in Galicia and you can find news from 2024 They pointed out “challenges” on the devices. It has now been, however, when criticism has risen. Police unions They lament From the lack of reliability in telematic control and even slide that specialized judges are suspicious of the bracelets. “They fail a lot,” they recognize from the collective A The confidentialwhich ensures that it is really nothing new. “The comet system is something that … Read more

Going to the hairdresser or putting bracelets is not enough for Mercadona to dismiss you

by

An employee who had been working as a manager in Mercadona for more than twenty years had to face a complicated situation when, in August 2023, he began A medical leave For anxiety. While it is true that there are certain activities that a person on a medical leave should not do, the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León has had to remind Mercadona to go to the hairdresser or get bracelets is not sufficient reason for A disciplinary dismissal. Spied on the super. As detailed In the sentencethe farewell employee worked as a manager in a Mercadona de León supermarket since 2001. In 2023, she took a medical leave for anxiety. After a few months, Mercadona hired A private detective agency To monitor their daily activities while he was ongoing. In the report, the detectives recorded that the worker had gone to the hairdresser, wore bracelets and rings, spoke on the phone and had even made purchases in a Lidl supermarket of cleaning products and detergents. Farewell by allergic? At all times, the company had linked all these activities with an alleged allergyTo metals such as nickel and chromium, present on the bracelets, in smartphones, in elements of the hair washing area, etc., as well as chemicals present in cleaning products. According to the allegations of the company “it has superior respiratory tract hypersensitivity by general immune irritative reaction due to awareness of irritating agents present in the work environment.” The daily activities of the employee, so normal to anyone, were interpreted by the company as a “lack of will to take care” and a reason for Unjustified extension of its temporal disability. According to the company, the use of jewelry and contact with chrome surfaces were “behavior incompatible with their healing process.” So the company declared “that the employee was acting in bad faith” and that “she had lost her trust”, so he applied a disciplinary dismissal. At this point, it should be remembered that the reason for the medical leave It was for anxiety. The judicial reaction: it has anxiety, not allergy. The Social Court No. 1 of León initially gave the reason to Mercadona, but the employee appealed the sentence and raised it to the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León (TSJCyL), which corrected the company’s performance strongly. The court criticized that they were considered “activities that compromise the healing” completely everyday actions such as going to the hairdressing, carrying bracelets or making the purchase. In addition, the ruling highlighted the contradiction between the diagnosis of anxiety that justified the decrease and argumentation of the dismissal focused on reasons related to respiratory pathologies caused by supposed chemical sensitivity. TSJCyL: One More Thing. The TSJCyl judgment not only declared the disciplinary dismissal inadmissible, but declared it void, considering that it occurred in a clearly repressive context. The worker had denounced deficiencies in the prevention of occupational hazards before her medical decline. Therefore, a violation was evidenced to the right to non -discrimination due to disability and compensation guaranteethat is, the right not to suffer from Exercise labor rightsinterpreting the dismissal of the employee as a revenge that had nothing to do with her medical recovery. The sentence. The Superior Court has dismissed the decision of the Social Court No. 1 of León that in the first instance gave the reason to Mercadona, and goes on to condemn the company to readmit to the worker in your job and with the same conditions and pay for back salaries from the discharge of temporary disability after dismissal, at a rate of 2,089.58 euros per month. In addition, you must pay compensation of 7,500 euros for damages. In Xataka | 55,245 euros for eating a sandwich and a beer: Mercadona must compensate an employee for unfair dismissal Image | Wikimedia Commons (LBM1948), Unspash (Farhad Ibrahimzade)

This is how bracelets with stickers came to cheat half the world

by

We are in 2009. Slovakia joins the euro zone, The name of Satoshi Nakamoto It begins to resonate in certain forums, the first Metro line from Andalusia is inaugurated in Seville, Spain gets gold in the Eurobasket and half -world dolls dress with miraculous bracelets called Power Balance. These bracelets, whose price was just 30 euros, promised to improve strength, balance and flexibility thanks to holograms that fixed our biocampus. They also turned out to be a millionaire scam. Power Balance’s story goes back to 2007, when the Josh and Troy Rodarmel brothers founded the company in California. Although the concept was not new, the two brothers developed a marketing campaign that worked perfectly, starting with Give your first 50,000 bracelets in the US Open of Surfing of 2007. Power Balance bracelet | Image: Wagner Bonifacio Leite In just a few months, these bracelets began arriving at personalities dolls such as Michael Jordan, Cristiano Ronaldo, Leonardo DiCaprio and even Shaquille O’Neal, which It appeared on video saying “I don’t give many testimonies, but this does work.” The Power Balance arrived throughout the world, Spain included. Until Infanta Elena had one. In 2010, the company reported some Sales worth $ 35 millionnothing wrong for a product without any scientific basis. Various studies They began to demonstrate that these products were useless, thus arriving the beginning of the end of the company. The key was, undoubtedly, the placebo effect, but that there was a hologram that balanced and isolated frequencies to improve our body was simply false. At the end of 2010The company had to admit that its products were not based on scientific evidence. In 2011, she was sentenced for fraud and forced to pay 57 million dollars. That led Power Balance to bankruptcy. Finally, the company was sold in 2012 to a Chinese company for eight million dollars. The original founders disregard them completely, but the product is still sold today (only without announcing effects of any kind). Cover image | Xataka In Xataka | The Bank of Spain alerts a malware capable of “capturing bank credentials.” His name: Trickmo

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.