We acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia as the traditional owners of the lands we live and work on.

We pay our respects to Elders past and present who continue to hold and carry deep connections to Country, culture, community and story. Sovereignty has never ceded.

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Keeping safe with technology

Keeping safe with technology

Technology-facilitated abuse can be used by a person to control, intimidate, harass, threaten, or stalk someone.

This can involve threats to share or sharing private photos without consent, accessing personal messages or social media accounts, controlling your friendships on social media, and sending hurtful messages online or via phone.

If you’re concerned that someone may be monitoring you through technology, there are steps you can take to stay safe.

Woman opening the boot of her car to look for tracking devices.

What to look for

Technology-facilitated abuse can impact you physically, mentally, emotionally, culturally, socially and financially. Technology can be used to isolate you from your family, friends, work and other social networks.

There are ways to keep safe if you are concerned someone might be isolating, stalking or monitoring you through technology.

  • Does your computer or smart fridge have a camera? If it does, find out how it works and make sure it's turned off. You might also want to cover the lens with tape when you're not using it.
  • Check your car for tracking devices regularly.
  • Check children’s belonging for tracking or recording devices.
  • Spyware can be put on smart devices easily. Check them often, especially when kids are going between homes.
Young girl looking down at her phone in her hands.

Keeping your devices safe

  • Consider using a separate email account for communication between you and other services such as police and lawyers.
  • Use a safe computer to access your email or internet. A safe computer might be a friend or family members or a public computer, for example at the library.
  • Clear your browser history after you have finished on the internet.
  • Make sure your phone locks after a short time and you use a pin code to unlock it.
  • Ensure you use passwords on all devices and logins. Don’t allow your computer to save your passwords.
  • Ensure your phone locks after short periods of time and you have a pin code to re-access it.
  • Turn off the location setting on your phone, or only turn it on when you need it.
  • Turn your bluetooth off and set your phone to hidden. Data on your phone can be stolen via bluetooth technology.
  • Make sure the privacy settings on your social media accounts are turned on.
  • Beware of Caller ID Spoofing. This is a service provided to change the caller ID to any other number. Always confirm who you are receiving a text message from.
  • Have your device and/or motor vehicle checked for GPS tracking. You can ask for assistance from your local police, or a trusted mechanic to check your car. Other items that could include GPS tracking are cameras, watches, tablets and toys.
  • Make sure the privacy settings on each device are set to keep your information as private as possible.

Keeping safe on social media

  • Consider using a profile name and picture that is non-identifying.
  • Consider using a different city as your location, don’t include your workplace, home or school on your profile.
  • Don’t ‘check in’ to places you go.
  • Avoid posting photos of the front of your house, your street sign or the number of your house. Remember to be careful about what is in the background of your photo.
  • Talk to the family and friends that frequent your home and ask them to assist you by not tagging themselves or posting unsafe photos.
  • Be mindful of your status updates. Things such as “I’m going to the Coast for the weekend” might be better off replaced with “I went to the Coast over the weekend” a few days later.
  • Ensure privacy settings on social media platforms are engaged.

For more information, you can visit these websites: Wesnet or eSafetyWomen.

Talk to someone

If you need to talk to someone call our 24/7 crisis phone line on 02 62 800 900.

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We acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia as the traditional owners of the lands we live and work on. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging who continue to hold and carry deep connections to country, culture, community and story. Sovereignty was never ceded.

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