iapp, Simson Garfinkel, CIPP/US: “Features designed to improve privacy and protect children in online services, apps and networked devices also make it easier for abusers to maintain control in abusive relationships.  “Ever since caller ID and GPS became part of our lives, we’ve known that digital technologies can be used by abusers to harm or track their victims, and that’s only become more complicated and more prevalent as technology has,” Clinic to End Tech Abuse Director of Operations Lana Ramjit told an audience of cybersecurity professionals and academics at the the USENIX Association’s Enigma 2023 Conference in January. Ramjit’s clinic, one of three in the U.S. dedicated to helping people in abusive relationships where technology plays an important factor, recently published a toolkit for others seeking to set up their own tech abuse clinics. Few technologists or privacy professionals have first-hand experience or training in tech abuse, Ramjit said. The result is that well-intentioned privacy and security features can backfire when put into use. To avoid such traps, privacy pros need to be familiar with special tactics used by abusers and work with design teams to build defenses into products and services.

For example, abusers frequently use family telephone plans to maintain control. Such plans typically allow the account “owner” to enable location tracking and monitor phone numbers called, with the hope of protecting children. These same features let an abuser maintain control in a relationship, for example by turning off a partner’s phone service for a few days as “punishment” if they do something the abuser finds displeasing…”