A/HRC/42/43 are cared for by families. Barriers to reporting include limited mobility, isolation, fear of retaliation and communication difficulties due to language, hearing or visual impairments. 70. Other risks, such as neglect and/or abandonment by the family, often in hospitals and nursing homes, exploitation by family members, emotional abuse and lack of control over assets and decision-making are often exacerbated in emergency situations, as older persons are separated from community support and familiar service structures, while and their role in the family and the community may be undermined. 7. Digital technology impact 71. Visual and hearing impairments may limit not only the capacity of older persons to obtain crucial information but also their mobility; consequently, they may be deprived of access to relief support and other services. As a result, older persons are much less visible in the community, which leads to the collection of data that are skewed, affecting not only the operational effectiveness of relief efforts but also future planning. 72. Digital information and communications technology is increasingly an essential element of emergency management and has the potential to improve the effectiveness of protection and relief activities. Technology is increasingly being used to support delivery of humanitarian assistance, including through the provision of information and feedback/complaints mechanisms. 73. Examples of the role of such technology include the use of social media to help to prepare citizens for natural disasters, customizing information on shelters and other forms of assistance made accessible by mobile telephones, or Twitter hashtags to map messages sent by the population and thereby make early damage assessments. Digital data-collection tools may be used to monitor the distribution of relief aid by local, smaller actors in areas to which international humanitarian agencies have no access.20 74. The increased use of technology, low digital literacy rates, unequal power relations within households that may deny older persons’ access to mobile telephones, hearing and visual impairments, and cognitive impairments, such as dementia, may also effectively exclude older persons from information on relief and support services, or the services themselves. Language barriers may have a similar effect, given that older persons are more likely to speak local languages not used by humanitarian actors. 75. A combination of modern technology, such as satellite data and computer processing of digital information, with traditional observation, including the knowledge of older persons, may increase the predictive quality and effectiveness of early warning systems. Remote sensing and satellite imagery analysis can serve as complementary tools for rapid primary data collection, damage assessments and the mapping of the impact of disasters and crises: information that will inform aid response and decision-making. 76. Biometric identification technology is increasingly used as a tool for emergency support and refugee management. Reliance on readily available, mass-market digital technology in the humanitarian context is accompanied, however, by specific risks and limitations, particularly considering that such “off-the-shelf” solutions were not designed for humanitarian actors and may not follow a human rights-based approach. 77. In particular, concerns subsist with regard to information that is collected through a process subject to little control and that rely on a mixture of data provided voluntarily and systemic metadata. The risk of overlooking digitally invisible older persons poses an important challenge. Also, the adoption rate among older persons of “smart” digital technology and the digital social network is significantly lower than the average in the population. Any decision-making based on such data is likely to overlook the more vulnerable members of the age group who have no access to or knowledge of digital technology or social networks due to numerous reasons. 20 International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, World Disasters Report 2013: Focus on technology and the future of humanitarian action, available from www.ifrc.org/PageFiles/134658/WDR%202013%20complete.pdf. 13