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Cybersecurity Research
  1. V. TECHNOLOGY AS A NEW TOOL FOR ABUSE

V. TECHNOLOGY AS A NEW TOOL FOR ABUSE

Technology is nearly impossible to avoid due to its ubiquity in the modern age. As of January 2017, 95% of Americans had a cellphone and close to 80% of Americans use the Internet daily.105 Abusers are increasingly turning to technological products to harm their partners, but the ways in which abusers cunningly abuse technology is alarming. In 2015, nearly one in six women in the U.S. were victims of unwanted stalking at some point in their lifetime, half of which occurred before the age of twentyfive, including through the use of technological tools such as texting, social media, and GPS. 106 Depending on the state and the technology involved, there are very few legal recourses or restrictions for an abuser’s exploitation of technology at the expense of the safety of their intimate partners. 107 Examples of technology-based abuse in intimate relationships include installing spyware or computer monitoring software or applications on a nonconsenting partner’s computer or phone; 108 tracking partners

101 Brenda Baddam, Technology and Its Danger to Domestic Violence Victims: How Did He Find Me?, 28 ALB. L.J. SCI. & TECH. 73, 76 (2017).

102 Technology Safety Plan: A Guide for Survivors and Advocates, TECH. SAFETY, NAT’L NETWORK TO END DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (2018), https://www.techsafety.org/resources-survivors/technologysafety-plan [https://perma.cc/7GZT-SXPF].

103 Id.

104 Id.

105 Baddam, supra note 101, at 75.

106SMITH ET AL., supra note 24, at 5-6.

107 Diana Freed et al., Digital Technologies and Intimate Partner Violence: A Qualitative Analysis with Multiple Stakeholders, 1 PROC. ACM HUM.-COMPUT. INTERACT. 1, 17 (2017), http://nixdell.com/papers/digital-technologies-intimate.pdf [https://perma.cc/97K2-PMWL].

108 Cindy Southworth & Sarah Tucker, Technology, Stalking and Domestic Violence Victims, 76 MISS. L.J. 667, 668 (2007).

with GPS devices; 109 hacking into a partner’s e-mail or social media accounts; 110 online harassment on social media or message forums; 111 and abusing smart home devices to manipulate or scare partners.112

While technology-based abuse has started to emerge in new areas such as smart home devices, prosecution and prevention efforts from the law have been lackluster due to the fast pace of technological development and the investigatory challenges in prosecuting technology-based crimes. 113 These challenges include the lack of technical knowledge, training, and resources by officers to conduct effective investigations. 114 The lack of familiarity with both new technology and technology-based abuse statutes makes it difficult for investigators to determine what evidence to document and how to do so, which consequently impacts the prosecutor’s ability to make charging decisions.115 Additionally, there may be statutory challenges to prosecute crimes of this nature. 116 For example, Maryland does not have a cyberstalking statute and its general stalking statute requires physical pursuit, which does not apply to online stalking.117 Abusers will continue to use technology to harm their partners because of the ease of technology-based abuse and weak enforcement.

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