With safety an ever-growing concern in our world, a new smartphone application known as Protector has gained momentum by enabling individuals to hire on-demand armed bodyguards, much in the same way a ride can be ordered through Uber. The application launched on February 19th, 2025 and has quickly attracted notice for the innovative method of personal protection it introduces, but not without generating heated debate and controversy.
Founded by ex-Meta product designer Nick Sarath, Protector launched in Los Angeles and New York City amidst increasing urban safety concerns. The launch came on the heels of the high-profile assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024 and served as a reminder of the desire for increased personal security. Sarath’s goal was to make professional security as easy as a rideshare experience. Open to anyone who has the means, the app focuses primarily on extremely high-net-worth individuals as well as celebrities, executives, and business heads who desire discrete professional security services.
Protector has a seamless platform through which clients book armed bodyguards at a few clicks on a smartphone. Clients can tailor their security team based on the quantity of bodyguards, their uniforms (business formal, street casual, or tactical), and their cars (Cadillac Escalades or Chevrolet Suburbans). The application hires active or retired law enforcement and military personnel and employs licensed individuals under the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act who carry firearms. The services take between $100 and $200 an hour and require a five-hour minimum booking time as well as a $129 annual fee.
Protector’s launch was supplemented by a strategic TikTok campaign in which influencers featured bodyguards taking them through airports, shopping excursions, or even coffee runs. The clips, which racked up millions of views and prompted more than 30,000 downloads, were subsequently acknowledged as sponsored by a Protector representative. The visibility of the application increased even more after the assassination of Thompson, as societal concern for personal security heightened. Nevertheless, the practice of using staged influencer clips has raised controversial debates on the ethics of marketing in which some questioned their genuineness.
Protector has come under criticism on several fronts. Its pricing—between $100 and $200 an hour and five hours minimum—pays for a luxury service only accessible primarily to the affluent and potentially increases inequality about personal security. Experts also question normalizing armed security in daily life as a threat to increasing conflict or facilitating misuses like having bodyguards as a status symbol or tool for intimidation. Protector’s own advertising strategies have raised concerns about a lack of transparency since sponsored TikTok clips were not clearly labeled as advertorial sponsorships at every turn.
Protector is set to expand with plans for the rollout of the “Patrol” feature, through which neighborhoods will be able to fund and organize neighborhood security with real-time monitoring. The firm also has ambitions to expand into cities such as Miami and San Francisco but has yet to announce any timeframes for doing so. These moves would make Protector’s reach even wider but also create regulatory and oversight issues in the personal security space as it develops.
Protector’s emergence fuels a larger debate about security in a fraught world. It presents a unique, technologically based solution for security issues but also raises issues about accessibility, ethics, and the wider societal effects of private armed vigilance. Whether Protector is the beginning of a trend toward a new urban security or only a niche luxury for a small few remains uncertain.
