Technology and personal safety
Need help to deal with technology-facilitated abuse?
Operation Safe Escape provides assistance to survivors of technology-facilitated abuse. For more information, visit safeescape.org.
WomenSV’s technology abuse resource guide
Click here to read our resource guide for technology abuse survivors.
For detailed information about safeguarding your electronics, please visit:
EndTAB’s resource guide for protection from and prevention of technology-facilitated abuse
What Google knows about you - more than you think!
Strangulation Prevention - webinar from the Casey Gwynn JD. Strangulation Prevention Training Institute.
Clinic to End Tech Abuse (CETA)
Cyber-Stalking Survivor Tips
If your email address, phone or computer is being hacked:
If you suspect your personal devices have been hacked by a former or current partner, you may want to use a public or shared computer such as at a library or at a trusted friend’s house. From there, you can create a secure encrypted email address using Proton Mail (go to https://proton.me/). Make sure to log out of your email when you are done using a shared or public computer.
To keep a secure backup of your important documents and files, you may want to use a USB / flash drive. You can store it at work or at a trusted friend’s place if you do not have a safe location to hide it at home.
You may also want to go to Best Buy and get a burner phone if you believe your phone’s safety has been compromised. To help keep your new phone safe, do not use it with your home’s wifi - turn it off completely and do not use it when you are at home. You can also get a Faraday pouch (such as this one) to help prevent tracking and hacking.
Computers
Your own activity on your computer can be monitored and traced, so do online research at a library or on a trusted friend’s computer. Regardless of your location, your partner can still trace you if you text him from your laptop. Be careful of revealing your activities/location on Facebook or other social media.
Smart Phones
Cell phone activity can be monitored and an “app” can be placed on your cell phone to track your location in real time and to “clone” and forward copies of every text you send or receive to your abuser’s phone. Your caller ID feature can be “hacked” by your abuser to make you think you are receiving a call from your mother, for example, or a trusted friend, when in fact it is your abuser. Consider getting a new phone without a contract, one that is charged up with a phone card to avoid a paper trail.
Hotlines
Calls to hotlines are completely confidential. You don’t even have to give your name. However, the phone numbers will appear on your phone bill. Be aware of which phone will be charged and who will see the bill.
Physical Safety
Do not tell your partner anything in advance about your plans to leave him. You risk your physical safety and you risk losing access to all bank accounts. The most dangerous times for you will be when he first learns of your plans to end the relationship and for the period afterwards ranging anywhere from 2 months to 2 years.
Storage
Where will you keep your private information? With a trusted friend? A safety deposit box? At work? In a hollowed-out book or a binder labeled “Recipes?” Store all “sensitive” paperwork in a safe location!
Web Cams
Hidden web cams can be installed in your home for security purposes, but they can also monitor your activity. Be careful and discreet! Do your very best not to take actions that may arouse suspicion if you are in a location where you think you might be recorded.