On average over 6,000 people die from suicides in the UK every year. According to World Health Organisation suicide kills more people than conflicts and natural disasters put together. In the past few years although there has been an increase in research and knowledge about suicide and however the stigma surrounding suicide still persist and more than often vulnerable individuals do not seek help.

Samaritans is a UK based charity whose vision is that fewer people die by suicide. It aims to achieve this by providing emotional support for those suffering distress and despair. It was founded by Chad Varah in 1953 what he called a '999 for the suicidal'. As at 2012 Samaritans has approximately 21,000 volunteers spread across more than 200 branches. Key tenants of Samaritans interaction with callers are its emphasis on confidentiality and the right of the individual to self-determination.

Since its inception Samaritans has always striven to embrace technology, in part driven by the need to reach younger people. In 2002 Samaritans launched an email service and in 2006 piloted an SMS service which rolled out in 2008. More recently in 2011 Samaritans began working with Facebook, producing a guide “Help a Friend in Need”. Although estimations show that of the 5 million contacts every year approximately 80% were dialogue contacts made by phone, 8% were by email, 10% were by SMS, 1% were face to face contacts made in branches, and 0.7% were face to face contacts made outside branches at festivals and other events however there is increasing evidence that social media can influence suicide-related behaviour and can serve as an early warning of suicidal behaviour. Hence building on its history of innovation on 29th October 2014 Samaritans introduced ‘Samaritans Radar’, a Twitter app linked to a subscribers account.

The app was designed to monitor the subscribers’ Twitter feed alerting them to any concerning tweets from those they follow. Joe Ferns, executive director of policy, research and development at Samaritans, said at the launch that the new app will “encourage people to look out for one another and help people in distress because friends could step in first.” The app immediately received negative reviews. Critics suggested that little thought had been given to the consequences of an app monitoring the personal data of nearly 2 million people. In addition a petition was launched calling for its withdrawal based on the potential for the app to be used in cyber bullying. Samaritans responded on 30th October emphasising the white-list function of the app which allowed users to opt out of the monitoring. On the 31st October Samaritans issued further justifications, explaining that the app had been tested for over a year and that 'academic' input had assisted in its development.

On 4th November the charity further responded claiming that it had taken further legal advice and that it believed that it was neither the data controller nor data processor of the information passing through the app as the does not process private tweets. Further even if Samaritans were deemed to be a data controller it argued given then the 'vital interests' that are at stake, the exemptions under data protection legislation were likely to apply. However the pressure on the charity continued and on 7th November 2014 it announced that it would suspend the app and on 14th November an apology was issued.

Despite receiving a positive response from many people, I think it is fair to say that the critical reaction of some Twitter users demonstrated that Samaritans Radar affected them in a way we were not expecting. As you know from our previous statement, we have apologised to them and will reiterate that apology today.

In this paper we will consider not only the legal issues around both data protection, privacy and the opportunity to harass and bully, but also the wider concerns of whether there was a failure to understand the nature of social media and how, if at all, Samaritans can continue to embrace such media.