Technology-Facilitated Stalking: What You Need to Know

Through technology and our use of social media, we can quickly and easily connect with other people. However, typical activities such as tweeting, updating a Facebook status, or using a phone’s GPS to find local restaurants can all be misused by abusers to stalk, harass, surveil, and control victims.

What is Stalking?

Stalking is defined as a pattern of behavior directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear. According to the CDC, 7.5 million people are stalked in the United States each year.

•  61% of female victims and 44 percent of male victims are stalked by current or former intimate partners.

• 90% of stalking incidents are committed by someone that the victim knows.

Learn more about stalking from the Stalking Resource Center

Misusing Technology in Order to Stalk Victims

One common form of technology-facilitated stalking is spying and eavesdropping. This is a popular method among perpetrators because it is inexpensive and easily hidden.

• Mobile devices include call records, texts, web surfing and physical location histories.

• Many social media apps also track a user’s friends, conversations and location.

The goal of the technology abuse can be to track or control a victim, to isolate the victim from supportive friends and family, or to damage a victim’s credibility or work-life.

Gathering Evidence

When it comes to technology-facilitated abuse, preserving evidence is critical. Though our gut reaction may be to hit ‘delete,’ we need to consider documenting what’s happening on the device before removing it. Possible steps include:

• Coordinating with law enforcement and prosecutors early on, if you choose to.

•  Keeping a stalking incident log. This helps to paint a picture and can help to refresh a victim’s memory. Some items to keep in the incident log include: text messages, photos, videos, voice messages, screenshots of phones and laptops, and printed emails with the header expanded.

Safety Tips for Survivors of Technology-Facilitated Stalking or Abuse

Though abusers can misuse technology, it can also be used strategically by survivors to enhance or maintain safety.

Safe and private use of technology is possible

• Learn more about technology safety through our Survivors’ Toolkit, including guides to privacy and safety with social media, mobile devices and more.

• Download our Tech Safety App to your mobile device to access tech safety tips, resources, and information on the go

Read a longer version of this summary. This post is drawn from a webinar hosted in January by Jewish Women International (JWI) featuring Safety Net and the Stalking Resource Center.

This project was supported by Grant No. 2016-TA-AX-K069 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.

Recent Instagram Changes Aim to Create a Safer Platform

Early last Fall, Instagram made a commitment to users to make sure it’s a safe place. Recently they’ve taken new steps toward fulfilling that commitment by launching a number of additional safety tools. These include:

·         Instagram Together a new safety center that catalogues all of the safety tools available to Instagram users, and lists international resources to support peoples’ safety (And we’re thrilled to say that techsafety.org is listed among them!)

·         Two-factor authentication will now be available to all users, adding an extra layer of security that helps keep your account safe even if your password is stolen.

·         Sensitive Content Screens will now blur out images and videos that have been flagged by users (and verified by Instagram’s review team) as sensitive in nature. These are images and videos that don’t violate Instagram’s guidelines, but that some users may feel are offensive or disturbing. As we know, sometimes online harassment takes the form of people mis-flagging the photos of victims in an effort to prevent them from effectively engaging on social media. We spoke with Instagram to see how they work to make sure the Sensitive Content Screens won’t be misused in such a way, and were told that the only time the screens will go up is if the content doesn’t violate their community guidelines but contains graphic or violent content. Examples of this include images of animal abuse, the impact of war on local communities, etc. Only Instagram can place a screen over a photo, and the number of times a post is flagged will not impact their decision-making process – so if someone is trying to troll a victim by mis-flagging their photos, their efforts will be ineffective.

We’re pleased to see Instagram work to make their platform a safer place for survivors of harassment and abuse, and look forward to seeing what’s next in their efforts to fulfill their commitment to kindness!

NNEDV Resource Highlight: Staying Safe on Facebook

CNN: Facebook launches tools to combat “revenge porn”

On April 5, 2017, Facebook announced that it would apply photo-matching software to help stop the spread of “revenge porn” – which is a pervasive crime that occurs across social media channels and the internet (however, we prefer the more accurate term “non-consensual sharing of intimate images”). We are proud to have helped advise Facebook in the development and rollout of these new tools to stop the spread of non-consensual sharing of intimate images on Facebook platforms. Read more about these new tools here.

In May 2017, Facebook also added another level of defense against improper content. 3000 new employees were hired to review content such as hate speech, child exploitation, and“revenge porn.” Facebook currently has nearly 2 billion users, which makes the process of reviewing and removing inappropriate content an enormous job. The company has expressed a hope that the added employees will help to more quickly remove information that is disallowed by Facebook policies. Read more about the new employees here.  More information about how to make a report of inappropriate content can be found here. 

Since 2009, Safety Net has worked with Facebook to help improve safety considerations and increase survivors’ ability to safely utilize the platform. We believe that survivors have the right to remain connected to their friends and loved ones and that everyone deserves to be safe at home, at work, on the street, and online.    

Learn more about staying safe on Facebook:

«  Safety & Privacy on Facebook: A Guide for Survivors of Abuse is available in English, Spanish (Latin America), French, Arabic, and more

«  Our quick Guide to Staying Safe on Facebook is currently available in English

«  Review additional tools and resources for survivors in our toolkit, Technology Safety & Privacy: A Toolkit for Survivors

If you have additional questions about helping survivors stay safe on social media – or any other technology safety questions, please reach out to our Safety Net team: safetynet@nnedv.org.