Verena

Verena is a personal security system for marginalized communities, protecting them before, during, and after hate crimes, abuse, bullying, and more.

All messages are sent through our servers, leaving no trace on your phone. All of their important details are saved and encrypted locally on your device. You have a bright future that you deserve to see. Verena is meant to make sure you get there safely.

The emergency feature allows you to go through a system of questions to direct you to the best resources to help them through their emergency situation. You can get directions to points of interest, find custom resources, call emergency contacts, and get directed through pipelines to best help you out. Emergency is best used after an incident or emergency to help guide you through what you need to do to get and feel safe.

Based on incident reports used within police departments and educational institutions, incident logs are forms where you can report specific details of abuse, hate crimes, harassment, discrimination, and bullying. The logs help you remember important details and events to keep track of incidents and to potentially report situations to the authorities. The incident logs should be used to keep track of incidents that occur in your life that you want to report or keep a record for.

Record allows you to take videos of escalating situations and allows them the ability to send an emergency alert to your contacts if the situation gets out of hand. Record is for use in situations where you need to actively get evidence and proof of an escalating situation, but are scared of potentially being involved in an altercation.

Timer is a tool that allows you to put a set amount of time. When the timer hits 0, your emergency contacts will be alerted. The timer is for use in situations where you may not know the outcome, and want to have a back-up in case things go wrong.

Location allows them to see where you are and how close you are to the addresses of your contacts. Within the emergency tool, you're able to use the location tool to see how far away you are from points of interest and are able to see them in AR mode to visualize the locations near them.

Shutdown allows you to use a keyword from the login screen to completely erase all data from Verena, and shows a fake "server down" screen. Shutdown is for use in situations where an abuser or an untrusted person hijacks your phone and is trying to gain access to, or knows about Verena.

Emergency Access allows you to hold the login button to alert your emergency contacts easily, letting you bypass logging in and using other tools to alert them. This is good for situations in which you need help ASAP, and are unable to use other tools.

Incognito Mode hides Verena through a fake working app and changes the app icon to look like a cooking, math, or news app. The fake app allows you to hide Verena from people who have access to your phone. Incognito mode is great for long-term situations where you need to hide the security app from others for your own safety.

Verena is made, designed, and developed by Astra Labs. We're a youth-run 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to using code for change to help marginalized communities. We follow a strict code of values and ethics to keep you safe. When our users use Verena, they know that there are no ads in our apps, no harvesting or selling data, no "dark" or unethical design patterns, and no cost for our apps, ever.

You have (and deserve to see) an amazing future. Verena works to get you there safely.