Photo: © Henrymm | Dreamstime.com
By Angelique Platas – July 24, 2018
TraffickCam app allows travelers to upload hotel room images to a database in an effort to combat human sex trafficking.
Created in 2015 by Exchange Initiative, TraffickCam acts as a search engine for investigators and law enforcement to search through to compare vacant hotel room images uploaded by users with those found online of human-trafficking victims. As traffickers regularly post images of victims — often in hotel rooms — as online advertisements, photographs uploaded to TraffickCam can help investigators narrow down the search.
User-uploaded hotel images can be used as life-saving evidence to find and prosecute criminals. In order to use these photos, investigators must be able to determine where the pictures were taken. This simple step travelers can take in effectively assisting law enforcement determine which hotel rooms are featured in human trafficking photos. CNN tested the app in a story.