OUR VIEW: Students are already loaded with enough bills, $99 for a panic button is unnecessary. MyForce is making money off people’s fears and believes they are improving their image by doing so.

It is a cold night, tired and exhausted after studying at the ­library for hours till the clock strikes midnight; the walk back to the dorms seems endless. Shadows are appearing around every ­corner, following every step. There, another shadow, somebody must be following – this situation is now in the past.

Due to new and inventive technology, a smartphone will provide an app that will keep students safe on campus or any location by only pressing the panic button.

MyForce is, “The only personal security service arming you with live agents monitoring, tracking and responding immediately, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” as advertised on its website.

Chief Dan Williams proudly announced that the police ­department is now participating in the MyForce organization to provide greater safety for “only” $99 a year for students.

Midwestern students receive a $51 bulk discount. Even though administrators decided, on behalf of the students’ safety, to provide this ­service, it is good for MyForce that they are making money of already-always-broke and loan-packed students.

But apparently that improves MyForce’s image by caring about students’ safety.

On a 255-acre and dead-at-night campus, any person’s first reaction in a potentially dangerous or threatening situations would not be: “I should use my safety button app.” Anyone in danger would call somebody or get their metabolism going and run.

This program is not mandatory and will not affect tuition. ­Further, MyForce is unnecessary and the company profits by selling its product – fear.

People are scared at night and worry about their safety, but it is immoral to make profit of people’s fears.

To purchase and to install the app, students will have to sign up for an account.

Not only will MyForce and police have immediate access to names, addresses, cellphone numbers, birth dates and student records, but will also be able to access specific GPS coordinates of the location and time the “panic button” is pressed.

What about banking information and a Social Security number?

Giving out an incredible amount of personal information is scarier than any improbable and potentially dangerous situation. Information gives a lot of power, and to everybody’s knowledge, society has already moved to being under the power of a controlled state.

It is already hard to trust the government with personal information, but private organizations being able to have access to identifying information is disturbingly terrifying, especially during a time when identity theft is a major concern.

Incidents have happened on campus that students, primarily females, were attacked or followed by random strangers, but truthfully, it happens everywhere. The app is supposed to locate the user anywhere, even off-campus, in a bigger city, for example. Once the user presses the button on the app, the local police station will call and make sure that everything is okay or ask whether the user is in a threatening situation. If so, police are dispatched. By the time they arrive, the user should already have moved away from the dangerous situation, or it might already be too late. Sorry.

When people start worrying about every single step they make and whether it is safe or not to walk outside alone at night in an already dangerous neighborhood, not even a “panic button” is going to help.

Common sense helps avoiding situations like these. If not, it only proves that Darwin’s theory of natural selection is working.