logo
TSB offers free access to personal safety app Hollie Guard Extra

TSB offers free access to personal safety app Hollie Guard Extra

Finextra14-05-2025
UK bank TSB is offering customers who are fleeing or experiencing abuse free access to personal safety app Hollie Guard Extra for a year.
0
Hollie Guard Extra, the paid-for version of the free Hollie Guard app, costs £7.99 a month and transforms an everyday smart phone into a personal safety device.
With a tap or shake of the device, the user can send alerts to chosen emergency contacts, including the police, and a 24/7 monitoring centre. The app allows for a user's location to be shared every five seconds, alongside audio and video recordings to help keep people safe in a vulnerable or potentially dangerous situation.
TSB customers can now download the app and add a unique activation code for free access. Anyone wishing to claim can discuss their situation in branch, over the phone or via video banking.
Downloaded by more almost 500,000 people in the UK, Hollie Guard Extra is used by police forces across the country and has led to numerous arrests.
TSB has added the free Hollie Guard Extra access to its existing domestic abuse support, which includes its Emergency Flee Fund which provides up to £500 to help customers escape an abuser, and in-branch and online safe spaces.
Minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, Jess Phillips MP, says: "TSB's initiative shows how businesses can take action to prioritise their customers' safety and help deliver the whole-society approach needed to create lasting change in our fight against violence and abuse."
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

My favourite Ninja air fryer just dropped to its lowest price EVER on Amazon – save 42% off
My favourite Ninja air fryer just dropped to its lowest price EVER on Amazon – save 42% off

The Sun

time31 minutes ago

  • The Sun

My favourite Ninja air fryer just dropped to its lowest price EVER on Amazon – save 42% off

I tested the Ninja CRISPi air fryer recently, and was really impressed. The newest in the brand's line-up, it was only released in spring this year, and it's now become a firm favourite for cooking in my household. 3 Ninja CRISPi air fryer £104.80 (was £179.99) The only downside, like with many of Ninja's premium devices, is the price point - but as that's now greatly reduced, it's a brilliant time to buy. Instead of £179.99, it's now reduced to £104.80, if you buy the navy blue shade - you can also read my full Ninja CRISPi review here. Not only is it the cheapest price the air fryer has ever dropped to according to but it's also the top-selling model on Amazon. As the gadget is so new, I couldn't believe it when I saw Amazon has dropped the price considerably - but you'll want to be quick in case it doesn't last long. Performance 3 It has everything you'd expect from an air fryer - quick cooking time and crispy results - but the unique thing about it is the compact and portable design. The biggest standout (and reason it beats other air fryers in my opinion) is that it's perfect for small kitchens. If you're a proud galley kitchen owner like me with counter space at a minimum, you'll probably appreciate the fact that this air fryer breaks down into several different components. The glass containers which you cook and store the food in, the PowerPod which provides the heat and mechanism, and the crisper trays can all be tucked away separately. I loved how once you've prepared your meal, you can serve up straight to the table in the glass containers, or move them into the fridge to keep any leftovers fresh. 3 Compared to a traditional air fryer (I've been using one for years) it's far easier to clean too, whether that's by hand or in the dishwasher. Despite how new the air fryer is, it's clearly a success, with hundreds of hundreds of reviews on Ninja's website where it currently costs £149.99, but Amazon is definitely the cheapest place to buy it right now. Alternatively, Ninja has a sale on some of its other bestsellers, including the CREAMi ice-cream makers, blenders, BBQs and more. Or, if you're looking for other upgrades for your home, The Sun Shopping has recently done a Dyson V8 Animal review, rating it highly for powerful vacuuming and ease of use.

UK has backed down on demand to access US Apple user data, spy chief says
UK has backed down on demand to access US Apple user data, spy chief says

The Guardian

time31 minutes ago

  • The Guardian

UK has backed down on demand to access US Apple user data, spy chief says

The UK government has dropped its insistence that Apple allows law enforcement officials 'backdoor' access to US customer data, Donald Trump's spy chief, Tulsi Gabbard, says. The US director of national intelligence posted the claim on X following a months-long dispute embroiling the iPhone manufacturer, the UK government and the US president. Trump had weighed in to accuse Britain of behaving like China, telling the prime minister, Keir Starmer: 'You can't do this'. Neither the Home Office nor Apple are commenting on the alleged agreement, which Gabbard said meant the UK was no longer demanding that Apple 'provide a 'backdoor' that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties'. The transatlantic row began when the Home Office issued a 'technical capability notice' to Apple under the Investigatory Powers Act, which requires companies to assist law enforcement in providing evidence. Apple responded by launching a legal challenge, which the Home Office demanded be kept secret but judges ordered be made public. The US vice-president, JD Vance, also complained saying: 'I don't want American citizens to be spied on'. He said it was 'crazy' that 'we're creating a backdoor in our own technology networks that our enemies are now using'. Civil liberties groups cautioned that the backdoor would put politicians, campaigners and minority groups at particular risk of being targeted. In February, Apple responded by withdrawing the option for its new British customers to enable advance data protection options, saying it was 'deeply disappointed' and would never build a backdoor into any of its products. That meant, uniquely, many UK customers were unable to benefit from end-to-end encryption of services, including the iCloud Drive, photos, notes or reminders, making them more vulnerable to data breaches. Gabbard said: 'Over the past few months, I've been working closely with our partners in the UK, alongside President Trump and Vice-President Vance, to ensure Americans' private data remains private and our constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected.' It is not clear whether the technical capability notice requiring the data access would be withdrawn altogether or altered. It could in theory be limited to allowing access to the data only of UK citizens, although experts cautioned that could be technologically unrealistic. It also raises the danger that other foreign governments could still find a way to use the backdoor. Neither is it clear whether Apple will be able to offer new UK customers access to its highest levels of data protection again. The Home Office refused to confirm Gabbard's claim, saying: 'We do not comment on operational matters, including confirming or denying the existence of such notices. We have long had joint security and intelligence arrangements with the US to tackle the most serious threats, such as terrorism and child sexual abuse, including the role played by fast-moving technology in enabling those threats.' It added: 'Those arrangements have long contained safeguards to protect privacy and sovereignty: for example the data access agreement includes critical safeguards to prevent the UK and US from targeting the data of each other's citizens. We will continue to build on those arrangements and we will also continue to maintain a strong security framework to ensure that we can continue to pursue terrorists and serious criminals operating in the UK. We will always take all actions necessary at the domestic level to keep UK citizens safe.' The UK-US data access agreement allows UK agencies to submit requests for content of communications directly to communications service providers, including social media platforms and messaging services, in the US, but this must be for the purpose of investigating, preventing, detecting, and prosecuting serious crime, officials said. Apple was approached for comment.

The Guardian view on Britain's AI strategy: the risk is that it is dependency dressed up in digital hype
The Guardian view on Britain's AI strategy: the risk is that it is dependency dressed up in digital hype

The Guardian

timean hour ago

  • The Guardian

The Guardian view on Britain's AI strategy: the risk is that it is dependency dressed up in digital hype

There was a time when Britain aspired to be a leader in technology. These days, it seems content to be a willing supplicant – handing over its data, infrastructure and public services to US tech giants in exchange for the promise of a few percentage points of efficiency gains. Worryingly, the artificial intelligence strategy of Sir Keir Starmer's government appears long on rhetoric, short on sovereignty and built on techno-utopian assumptions. Last week Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, was promoting the use of AI-generated discharge letters in the NHS. The tech, he said, will process complex conversations between doctors and patients, slashing paperwork and streamlining services. Ministers say that by applying AI across the public sector, the government can save £45bn. But step back and a more familiar pattern emerges. As Cecilia Rikap, a researcher at University College London, told the Politics Theory Other podcast, Britain risks becoming a satellite of the US tech industry – a nation whose public infrastructure serves primarily as a testing ground and data source for American AI models hosted on US-owned cloud computing networks. She warned that the UK should not become a site of 'extractivism', in which value – whether in the form of knowledge, labour or electricity – is supplied by Britain but monetised in the US. It's not just that the UK lacks a domestic cloud ecosystem. It's that the government's strategy does nothing to build one. The concern is that public data, much of it drawn from the NHS and local authorities, will be shovelled into models built and trained abroad. The value captured from that data – whether in the form of model refinement or product development – will accrue not to the British public, but to US shareholders. Even the promise of job creation appears shaky. Datacentres, the physical backbone of AI, are capital-intensive, energy-hungry, and each one employs only about 50 people. Meanwhile, Daron Acemoglu, the MIT economist and Nobel laureate, offers a still more sobering view: far from ushering in a golden age of labour augmentation, today's AI rollout is geared almost entirely toward labour displacement. Prof Acemoglu sees a fork: AI can empower workers – or replace them. Right now, it is doing the latter. Ministerial pledges of productivity gains may just mean fewer jobs – not better services. The deeper problem is one of imagination. A government serious about digital sovereignty might build a public cloud, fund open-source AI models and create institutions capable of steering technological development toward social ends. Instead, we are offered efficiency-by-outsourcing – an AI strategy where Britain provides the inputs and America reaps the returns. In a 2024 paper, Prof Acemoglu challenged Goldman Sachs' 10-year forecast that AI would lead to global growth of 7% – about $7tn – and estimated instead under $1tn in gains. Much of this would be captured by US big tech. There's nothing wrong with harnessing new technologies. But their deployment must not be structured in a way that entrenches dependency and hollows out public capacity. The Online Safety Act shows digital sovereignty can enforce national rules on global platforms, notably on porn sites. But current turmoil at the Alan Turing Institute suggests a deeper truth: the UK government is dazzled by American AI and has no clear plan of its own. Britain risks becoming not a tech pioneer, but a well-governed client state in someone else's digital empire. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store