Nowadays, it seems like the topic of harassment in workplaces has become a common issue for several companies and businesses. Still, it’s no secret that workplace harassment has been an ever-growing problem over the last two decades. In fact, the number of harassment victims in the workplace has nearly doubled in comparison to pre-pandemic times. According to a global survey conducted in 2022 by the International Labour Organization (ILO), more than one in every five people (almost 23%) in employment have experienced harassment and violence at work. More recently, statistics from a report published by HR Acuity suggest that approximately 52% of employees have experienced or witnessed workplace harassment in the form of inappropriate, unethical, or downright illegal behaviors.
Workplace harassment can include any form of abuse, from verbal abuse, bullying, threats, discrimination and racism to more serious actions from coworkers such as unwanted sexual advances and physical abuse. Obviously, harassment in the workplace can have a serious detrimental impact on all employees, including lower productivity, worse morale, and more attrition, all of which can create a hostile work environment. Moreover, if not dealt with early on, workplace harassment can ultimately lead to employees suffering from it to experience psychological discomfort and traumas, to quit their job, or even to file a lawsuit, which is something no organization or business wants to be involved with, especially when made public. This is why it so important for businesses to deal with and prevent harassment at the workplace, as that is an essential part of any company’s future. Enter ATBHASH, who recently announced its NANSHEE App at CES 2024, a pioneering mobile app designed to prevent moral and sexual harassment at work by offering a discreet and secure way for victims of workplace harassment to document and store digital evidence of abuse, all while utilizing blockchain technology to ensure the highest level of security and privacy for all collected data.
By integrating ATBHASH’s NANSHEE App in their organization, companies can more easily protect and help their employees to fight against workplace harassment and ultimately prevent it, thus ensuring a healthy and safe workplace environment for everyone.
WHO IS ATBHASH?
ATBHASH is a 4-year old French tech company based in Paris, France that’s focused on developing blockchain technology-based solutions that ultimately enable the verification and inalterability of one’s personal evidence in digital form for different scenarios. More specifically, the company specializes in the certification of different types of digital documents through their mobile app, which also utilizes geolocation timestamping through the Tezos blockchain network (an open-source blockchain that can execute peer-to-peer transactions and serve as a platform for deploying smart contracts) to prove the credibility of those files.
The company originally worked for the building industry, during which time they developed CEERTIF as their first technology-based solution, a mobile application that in just a few clicks allows its users to obtain the assurance that their photos, videos, and scans made on a construction site or any other sort of intellectual property owned either by companies or individuals remain completely inalienable and unalterable by any third party thanks to the use of blockchain technology, including both the files themselves as well as the timestamp for those files (i.e. the original date that each file was create). In other words, CEERTIF users are offered the means to create digitally-certified evidence / proof regarding those construction sites or self-owned properties that’s ultimately indisputable, which they can then present to legal authorities or even in a court of law if necessary.
Since ATBHASH released its CEERTIF mobile app for digital certification through blockchain technology, the company has already received more than 1.2 million files through their blockchain network. ATBHASH’s CEERTIF mobile app has been used by 160 different companies and accounts for an average of 330 active users on a daily basis.
Following the launch of their CEERTIF mobile app, ATBHASH has been working on the development of the NANSHEE App, a proactive solution that aims to prevent and tackle all forms of workplace harassment by providing employees that have been victims of harassment within their workplace with a reliable way to document and store digital evidence of abuse that’s digitally-certified, allowing them to prove their situation and assert their rights in court.
During CES 2024, we had the opportunity to interview Eric Albou, who’s the founder, CEO, and Chief Digital Office of ATBHASH. Eric is a former veteran lawyer with 20 years of experience who was involved in disputing counterfeiting actions and copyright claims of intellectual property. In addition, Eric was also involved in the defense of women who were subjected to any form of violence, for which he worked in defending those victims and ultimately proving their case by personally gathering credible evidence that could be used in court.
In our interview, Eric noted that “Nowadays, harassment in the workplace, whether that’s in the form of moral or even sexual harassment, is a very common and ever-growing issue that can be seen everywhere, not just in the US, not just in Europe, but everywhere around the world.”
Eric also pointed out that: “One in every four women experience some form of harassment in the workplace, and the same can also be said about any minority, not only including minorities that are part of the LGBQT community, but also any other minority group.”
Eric ended by saying that: “Any employee that experiences any form of harassment in their workplace should be able to have a reliable way to keep credible and indisputable proof (i.e. evidence) of that happening, for which that same form of proof should be available for court in case they need to file a lawsuit against their harasser.”
That’s exactly where ATBHASH’s NANSHEE App comes into play. By providing companies with the NANSHEE App, potential harassers are discouraged from harassing their coworkers, not only in the workplace, but also outside of it. Moreover, the NANSHEE App also helps companies to lower the pressure from employees who are getting harassed by simply equipping them with this tool.
WHAT IS THE NANSHEE APP?
The NANSHEE App is a mobile app designed as a proactive solution to prevent moral and sexual harassment at work which offers victims of workplace harassment a discreet and secure way to document and store digital evidence of abuse that’s digitally certified.
The app utilizes ATBASH’s advanced blockchain technology CEERTIF to ensure the highest level of security and privacy for all of their collected data, including photos, videos, and screenshots containing transcriptions of messages sent on any platform, whether that’s through SMS, email, WhatsApp, iMessage, etc.
Thanks to ATBASH’s CEERTIF blockchain technology, all the digital evidence that’s collected through the NANSHEE App by victims of workplace harassment can then be shared with their company’s HR department and with their local law-enforcement authorities to prove an harassment claim without the risk of their abusers finding out, and it can also be presented in a court of law as legit and indisputable evidence, as it is digitally certified through that same blockchain technology.
Any digital file that’s created in the NANSHEE App is timestamped and geo-located for unmatched security and reliability through Tezos’ blockchain technology, a low-efficiency blockchain technology that works based on a proof-of-stake protocol (unlike blockchains that rely on proof-of-work schemes). Therefore, in just approximately 5 minutes, the whole blockchain-based process of time-stamping, geo-locating, and encrypting a user’s digital files is concluded.
Whenever a digital file is created in the NANSHEE App, a watermark is also automatically added to each file to ensure its full credibility.
It’s also worth noting that ATBHASH doesn’t use any of its users’ data for anything, meaning it does not collect, use, sell, nor rent that data, as all of their users’ data is fully encrypted through the entire blockchain process from start to finish, making all of their users’ personal data completely private and anonymized.
The way that works is by having each user’s data that’s collected by the NANSHEE App being encrypted by the Tezos blockchain technology, and then sent to the company’s dedicated secure data center server by (OC3), meaning that no other third-party company is involved in providing a server that would be utilized as the NANSHEE’s App data storage server (which is usually the case with big tech companies such as Amazon, or Google, etc.).
Users can access the app in one of two ways, either by using Face ID or by using fingerprint ID.
Moreover, users can also change the NANSHEE App’s icon and also the app’s name as a way to hide its existence in their smartphone.
Lastly, the app’s geo-location feature also enhances its users’ safety, as it also allows for precise location tracking of their current location whenever they find themselves in critical situations.
Each user can invite up to 3 “Angels”, which are basically trustworthy emergency contacts they’d want to have automatically contacted and notified in case the user themselves is in imminent danger. Those Angels can be anyone that user trusts, whether that’s family members, close friends, a lawyer, associations, or even trusted third parties. If those emergency contacts accept a user’s request to be their Angels, they’ll be registered directly on the NANSHEE App.
Then, whenever a user feels like they’re in danger, they can simply click the Red Alert Bell Icon (located at the bottom-right of the app’s screen) to contact their Angels, who will receive an alert in the form of an SMS, a WhatsApp message, and an email, for which they can then click on that notification, allowing them to “geo-localize” that user for a total of 30 minutes, essentially giving those emergency contacts enough time to contact the police or any other local authorities.
WHAT ARE ATBHASH’S FUTURE PLANS FOR THE NANSHEE APP?
ATBHASH is looking to provide the NANSHEE App as a service to other companies geared as a B2B (business-to-business) sales model, for which they charge a fairly-priced fee per each employee within those companies, equating to just a few dollars for each employee according to Eric. The final cost will mainly depend on the size of each company and their respective industry.
The main goal that ATBHASH has with the launch of its NANSHEE App is to help any companies that are interested in their service to be more involved in their employees’ safety within the workplace.
Once a company purchases this service, the app is then free to download for all of its employees.
Since the NANSHEE App is provided as a white-label service, companies that purchase this service can also request to change the app’s template, logo, and colors for the app’s user-interface according to their respective brands.
Additionally, those companies can also choose to show additional documentation regarding why they’ve purchased the service provided by the NANSHEE App as a way to more easily explain to their employees that the app serves as a tool to help better protect them against workplace harassment. Companies can also include a reference for a dedicated HR contact within the company in their own version of the app.
At the present, ATBHASH has only launched its NANSHEE App in France and is looking to provide it to other European countries. Nevertheless, the company is also planning to introduce its app to the US market in the near future, estimating that to happen in approximately 2 to 3 months, planning to do so either in March or April.
While ATBHASH has already fully developed all the technology behind the NANSHEE App, the company will require to do some minor, but necessary adjustments in order for its app to be more in line with current US laws.
If you’re interested in learning more about the NANSHEE App or about ATBHASH, simply visit their respective official websites.
