Staying Put is deeply concered about the significant rise in tech abuse with devices in the homes being increasingly used to commit control women and girls. Perpetrators are using these devices to learn where their partner or ex-partners are or take images and recordings without consent.
On average, every UK household has nine connected devices. These include speakers, mobile phones, assistants and baby monitors. In some cases, women’s locations are being tracked by their Netflix accounts. Here are some examples from our clients about what they’ve faced:
Typical examples of tech control
Typical examples of people using technology to control include perpetrators using Apple Air Tags to track their victim’s whereabouts. Other examples include tracking locations through SnapChat, or asking victims to remove contacts from WhatsApp. Some perpetrators gain access to WhatsApp accounts so they can see all their victim’s private messages.
However, the control can go deeper and have bigger consequences.
Less typical examples of tech control
Sarah* currently has no control over her heating. Her partner set up their smart meter but has left the property and is living somewhere else. Sometimes there is no heating, sometimes it’s too hot, it is all controlled by her partner. Sarah can’t get access to the account and is working with her provider to gain control.
Similarly, since Preeti’s* husband moved out her house alarm has been activated at strange times in the night and early morning. Preeti works night shifts and has two young children who are being woken by the noise. Again, Preeti has no access to the house alarm app as it was her partner who set this up. She is currently trying to contact the provider to change the account details.
As Amira’s* partner set up their CCTV he still had access despite leaving the property. This means he could watch her and her children at any time day or night. Amira has since turned the CCTV off to protect her families privacy.
Alicja’s* partner gifted her a Tesla. At the time Alicja thought this was a very expensive and thoughtful gift, but really it was used to track where she was going. As a result, when she decided to leave the relationship she could only meet her support workers at the GP surgery as this was the only place that wouldn’t raise suspicions.
Finally, Hannah* wears a smartwatch to track her steps and activity. Unfortunately, it meant her partner could track her whilst at work. He would query her location and where she was due to the nature of her job, as well as monitoring how much time she spent in a certain location. When Hannah decided to get help to leave the relationship, she had to be very careful. When she attended one to one appointments with our team, she would give her watch to a colleague to wear so that her partner wouldn’t be suspicious. Remember, when someone decides to leave an abusive relationship it is a dangerous time for them.
“Unfortunately, technology which should be used to help us with our day to day tasks are now being used for more sinister means,’ states Yasmin Khan, CEO. Perpetrators of domestic abuse often use technology as a tool to control and abuse, to isolate survivors from their network of support.
‘We need big tech companies to understand this and take measures to make it easier to turn certain functionalities off”
How to protect your tech
So, what can you do to protect yourself from this behaviour? Refuge have resources to help you understand how to protect yourself from potentially invasive technology, including how to secure your technology to stop this from happening.
Alternatively, Safeguarding Hub explain what technology can be used to track you and how to spot it.
Ultimately, if you have concerns, speak to us.
*Names have been changed
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