Glossary

GPS personal alarm

A GPS personal alarm is a duress device that transmits the wearer's live location with every alert, so responders go to the person rather than an address on file.

Location is what turns an alarm into a response. A GPS personal alarm streams the wearer's position continuously during an incident, so an operator follows a moving worker in real time - in a vehicle, on foot, between properties - instead of dispatching to a stale address.

GPS alone has two well-known gaps: indoors and blackspots. Indoors, buildings blur GPS to the street level, which is why serious systems add BLE beacon positioning to resolve floor and room. In coverage blackspots, the device holds and reports the last known location, and retries across 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi and SMS until a channel returns.

Privacy design matters in a workplace tool: location should stream during an alert and check-in events, not track workers continuously by default. Ask any vendor to explain exactly when location is visible and to whom.

Common questions

Does a GPS personal alarm track workers all the time?
It should not by default. Well-designed workplace systems transmit location during an activation, a check-in, or a journey the worker has started - not continuously. The distinction between duress location and surveillance is one to check in any vendor's privacy documentation.
Do GPS alarms work indoors?
GPS degrades indoors, which is why purpose-built systems add BLE beacon positioning to resolve the floor and room inside large buildings. Outdoors, GPS with live streaming is the standard, with last-known-location held if coverage drops.

See what a 7-second response looks like for your team.