Data Delayed is Life Denied: The Nepal Floods and the Tech Firms' Refusal to Share As the death toll in Nepal's devastating floods continues to climb, one aspect of the disaster response has sparked outrage among those affected: the reluctance of tech firms to share location data that could help locate missing loved ones.
For Sarada Viswanathan, whose partner Rishab Iyer vanished on August 26 while on a pilgrimage with his family, the silence from Apple, Optus, and Life360 is deafening.
The situation in Nepal is dire: over 1,200 people have lost their lives, and more than 4,200 remain missing – including hundreds of foreign nationals and 38 Australians.