Nomad Digital Becomes the First Transport Technology Company to Join Internet Watch Foundation
12 Jun, 2015, 08:00 BST
NEWCASTLE, England, June 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
'Friendly WiFi' accreditation now available to Nomad customers
Nomad Digital ('Nomad', 'the company'), the leading passenger WiFi provider to the global rail industry, has become the first transport technology member of the Internet Watch Foundation ('IWF'), a UK-based network of over 120 internet-affiliated companies committed to fighting criminal online content.
Nomad, whose passenger WiFi services are deployed on 75% of all UK WiFi connected trains, is bringing the IWF's fight against online crime to the railways. By being able to offer integration of an IWF-licensed service on all existing and future passenger WiFi systems, in addition to its existing technology blocking inappropriate content, Nomad is helping to protect UK train passengers from exposure to images and videos classified as criminal by the IWF.
Thanks to the company's IWF membership, all of Nomad's train operating customers in the UK who choose to integrate the software will now be eligible to join the 'Friendly WiFi' scheme, a new country-wide initiative launched by the Registered Digital Institute, in partnership with the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, and backed by the UK Government.
Friendly WiFi aims to improve public internet safety by reducing the risk of anyone accessing or being exposed to online criminal material when using WiFi in public places across the UK. Train operators that use Nomad's WiFi technology will be able to advertise Friendly WiFi hotspots on their trains.
As leaders in the provision of connectivity and passenger WiFi, Nomad has a responsibility to protect its customers' passengers from harmful content. Nomad's support of the IWF's critical campaign comes at a time of substantial increases in on-board passenger WiFi usage and performance. The overall use of passenger WiFi services on Nomad-enabled trains has quadrupled in the last three years, as customers' appetite for data-rich content more than matches the increases in bandwidth and download speeds.
Andrew Taylor, CEO of Nomad Digital, said, "As the primary internet service provider for the transport sector in the UK, we have a clear responsibility to [help our customers] protect [their] passengers from all forms of inappropriate and criminal online content. For many years we have worked with blacklisting providers to fight the spread of harmful content as much as possible. Working with the IWF, we can take this campaign one significant step further, moving from blacklisting to altogether blocking criminal content across all the trains that carry our technology."
Susie Hargreaves, IWF CEO, added: "Protecting internet users as they travel on trains is completely new to the IWF, but thanks to Nomad we can start to make that happen. The greater saturation of smartphone and tablet use on the move makes it all the more important for the IWF to establish partnerships with connectivity providers in the transport sector."
The IWF was established in 1996 and counts Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Sky, Twitter and Yahoo among its 120-strong membership base. Headquartered in the UK, the association has been praised by David Cameron, British Prime Minister, who supports its efforts to shut off access to abusive material, rather than only acting retrospectively on reported instances of criminal content.
Nomad will be contacting all of its customers to discuss the Friendly WiFi licence, with details on how to apply. As the leading Passenger WiFi provider with a large variety of Train Operating customers in the UK, Nomad will work closely with the IWF, RDI and all of its UK customers to clearly detail the function and benefits of the Friendly WiFi licence - whilst ensuring the application and deployment fully meets the customer requirements.
Nomad is currently assessing the potential of a global Friendly WiFi offering for Nomad customers outside of the UK.
About Nomad Digital:
Nomad Digital is the leading global provider of ICT enablement and connectivity solutions to the transportation sector.
Headquartered in the UK, Nomad designs, builds, deploys and manages Passenger WiFi and Passenger Information Systems. It also provides remote condition-based monitoring and maintenance solutions for optimising fleet management, operational performance, energy efficiency and cost savings.
About the Internet Watch Foundation
The IWF is the Hotline to report:
- child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world;
- criminally obscene adult content hosted in the UK;
- non-photographic child sexual abuse images hosted in the UK.
For more information please visit http://www.iwf.org.uk
The IWF URL List is a list of webpages hosted outside the UK which have been assessed by IWF Analysts as containing child sexual abuse content.
The IWF is part of the UK Safer Internet Centre, working with Childnet International and the South West Grid for Learning to promote the safe and responsible use of technology.
SOURCE Nomad Digital