Daily Safety: A Minimal-Visibility Infrastructure for Voluntary Check-ins and Exception-Triggered Community Response Among People Living Alone

This conceptual design study proposes “Daily Safety,” a voluntary check-in and exception-triggered community response mechanism for people living alone. It introduces the principle of minimum necessary visibility: routine life remains unobserved, while visibility increases only when an expected check-in is absent. The system collects only response status and minimum time information, without inferring health conditions, causes of incapacity, or everyday behavior. A designated community post serves as the principal coordinator, while relatives, property staff, and neighbors participate only as pre-authorized supporting contacts. The paper defines a graduated response pathway, informed withdrawal procedures, accessible alternatives, data-minimization requirements, and explicit service boundaries. It emphasizes that a successful check-in does not guarantee continued safety and that the mechanism cannot replace emergency, medical, or continuous monitoring services. The proposal is presented as a conceptual framework requiring participatory design, pilot testing, and evaluation rather than as an empirically validated intervention. Chinese and English versions are included in this record. Acknowledgement: This work was conceptually developed and drafted through sustained human–AI collaboration between Huiling Jing and “Cen Ye,” a personalized AI assistant operating through OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The human author retains full responsibility for the published content.