Spyware and GPS Tracking: The Next Frontier for Family Violence
August 26, 2019 | Security
We understand when a woman is murdered. We understand the hundreds and thousands of incidents that take the police to homes all over New Zealand and Australia.
Now there’s something more – and it’s so prevalent that family violence services are changing the way they operate. New research from Deakin University tells us that spyware is the next frontier – a “particularly acute threat” – in family violence. In fact, the manufacturers of spyware actively encourage and promote the use of their products for the surveillance of intimate partners and of children.
Of children.
It’s become so prevalent workers in shelters have had to change their practices. Yes, of course physical safety is paramount. But the chief executive of Women’s Community Shelters, Annabelle Daniel, says dealing with technologically-facilitated abuse is “now our core business”.
“Every single client comes in, we have to do a device audit,” she says. “We check anything that can be a trackable device at client intake.”
Here’s why. A woman turned up at one of the shelters a few weeks ago, desperate for refuge. She left her smart watch in her car. Her abuser tracked the watch and banged on the door of the nearest house. Fortunately, it wasn’t the refuge.
“No one ever considers the capacity this technology will be used for evil, against women and children,” Daniel says.
Alison Macdonald, acting chief executive officer of Domestic Violence Victoria, agrees this kind of surveillance is now ubiquitous – which makes it doubly hard for workers in the sector.
“Every couple of weeks we are hearing about new forms of spyware and GPS tracking – and other ways in which privacy can be breached. It’s nearly impossible to stay abreast of the new technology.”
The researchers at Deakin spent a year going through the technology. Diarmaid Harkin says they found two clear and concerning trends. One, spyware has terrible data-security practices, so it’s not ony allowing the perpetrator to track down the victim; it also leaks her whereabouts all over the internet. These data breaches affect people who have no idea they are under surveillance.
Secondly, there are plenty of abuse enablers out there, the companies who provide internet infrastructure and support. They are taking part in that abuse. Mind you, of those provides, Cloudflare, most famously a former enabler of 8chan, home to violent white nationalists, must feel comfortable with this kind of behaviour.
Androids are more vulnerable than iPhones (but both have problems) and spyware enables the sending of spoof messages. So an abuser could be sending messages that look like they come from the victim’s phone, perhaps assuring her friends she is OK, or telling her children: "I don't love you anymore."
Abusive, hostile, controlling.
But there are solutions. The research recommendations include putting pressure on the commercial actors that host or facilitate spyware products. That includes getting Google to remove spyware from its sales program.
And there is an entire raft of legal, policing and educational solutions that Harkin and his co-researcher Adam Molnar recommend to protect women. The laws we have are adequate, says Harkin, but they aren’t being enforced.
Their research did not turn up a single conviction for spyware use.
Karen Bentley, interim director of Australia’s peak body for family violence services, WESNET, says its resources now include instructions for discovering whether your phone’s security has been compromised. WESNET has been working with the Deakin researchers to develop tools.
One of Queensland's largest domestic violence services is putting pressure on politicians for more resources, saying it is being forced to let some calls go unanswered.
Bentley, formerly chair of the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, says this form of abuse is not replacing the physical abuse we already know and understand – it’s adding to it.
“It’s just another tool abusers are using – harassment, coercion, controlling behaviour – all those tactics abusers have always used,” she says.
WESNET trains domestic and family violence workers to recognise this surveillance and to help women understand how to make themselves more technologically secure. Software updates are there for a reason.
But sometimes all women need is a new phone, one completely clean of anyone else’s interference. That program of phone provision now exists, run by WESNET and funded by the federal government with support from Telstra, but it runs out next year.
The problem won’t be fixed by then. Decades of reporting on family violence and I'm not sure the answers are getting any clearer.
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- Article originally on smh.com.au.
