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PTI, DATI, safety app: what is the difference?
In France, these terms come up whenever lone working is discussed. They do not mean the same thing, and a personal safety app is not a DATI.
Lone working and the employer's duty
French labour law does not define lone working. The most widely used definition comes from the recommendations of the French national health insurance: work is isolated when the person is out of sight and earshot of others, with no possibility of outside help, and the work is dangerous.
Employers have a general duty of care towards their employees (article L4121-1 of the French Labour Code): they assess risks, including those of isolation, and organise prevention, alerts and rescue. The French occupational safety institute INRS has a full section on lone working (in French).
DATI and PTI
A DATI (dispositif d'alarme pour travailleur isolé, lone worker alarm device) is the equipment: a dedicated unit, a badge or an equipped smartphone. It is the term used by the INRS. Manufacturers often use PTI (protection du travailleur isolé, lone worker protection) for the same devices; the INRS warns against that name, which may suggest the device alone is enough to protect the employee.
A DATI usually combines:
- a manual alarm, triggered by a button;
- automatic alarms: loss of verticality, prolonged lack of movement, sometimes the device being torn off;
- alarm transmission to a person or organisation in charge of calling for help, often a monitoring centre that first verifies the situation;
- the device's location.
A DATI does not release the employer from their obligations: it is only useful within a defined, tested alert and rescue procedure.
What a personal safety app is
An app such as Five Angels follows a different logic: protecting a person, on their own initiative, by alerting the people they have chosen. It does not replace a DATI: it detects neither falls nor lack of movement, and its alerts do not go to a monitoring centre required to answer.
Side by side
| Criterion | DATI | Five Angels app |
|---|---|---|
| Who receives the alert | Monitoring centre or internal team | Up to 5 guardian angels chosen by the person |
| Manual trigger | Yes | Yes, with a slider |
| Falls, lack of movement | Yes, its primary function | No |
| Sound analysis by artificial intelligence | No | Yes, in Preventive mode: screams, calls for help, assault |
| Video and audio sent | Depends on the model | Yes, during the alert |
| Role in the employer's obligations | Part of the prevention approach | None |
| Use outside work | No | Yes, for the person and their family |
When to combine them
- The DATI organises rescue during lone work, especially when the main risk is an accident or a medical problem.
- The app protects the person, including outside work, in situations where the danger comes from someone else: assault, threats, harassment on the way home.
A company can offer Five Angels to its employees and their families as a complement to its prevention approach, never instead of a DATI. The For Business page sets out this position.