New & Updated Tech Safety Resources

Safety Net is excited to announce our new and updated resources (below). We hope these materials will help survivors and victim service providers who are trying to navigate technology, privacy, and safety. All of the materials are available in both English and Spanish.

Data Brokers: What they are and what you can do about them
This resource explains the risks to survivor privacy posed by data brokers and different potential strategies to address this issue in privacy planning. It is an overhaul of the previous resource on data brokers and contains new content. The intended audience is survivors and victim service providers.

Removing Sensitive Content from the Internet
This resource explains steps that survivors or victim service providers can take to have survivors’ personally identifying and/or intimate content from both host websites and search engine results in the course of privacy planning.

Safety and Privacy Tips for Older Technology
While less frequently seen in the field, some older technologies are still used against survivors. This new resource aims to preserve this useful information, while also removing it from more frequently used resources to improve length and readability of those other resources.

Increasing Awareness of Tech Abuse and the Importance of Privacy

Safety Net recently participated in some efforts to raise awareness about the complexities of technology abuse and the importance of privacy for survivors. In a podcast for Coda Currents, Erica Olsen shared examples of how technology is often misused as a tactic of abuse.

Toby Shulruff also talked with Consumer Reports about devices and privacy settings. The resulting article includes some helpful pointers for survivors who are looking to minimize privacy and safety risks with their tech. It also breaks down several steps to increase privacy and minimize the possibility of abuse, including:

• email accounts

• social media accounts

• ride-hailing apps (Uber, Lyft)

• streaming media (Netflix, Uber)

• bank and credit card sites, cable, phone, and utility companies,

• and computer and mobile device passwords.

For additional information read the full article, How to Shut Stalkers Out of Your Tech, and share with anyone who may be concerned about their privacy. In addition, for a deeper dive into maintaining control over your information, check out their Security Planner Tool that they revised last year with Safety Net’s input.

Safety Net Project's International Work Expands

We are thrilled to announce a new international partnership! The Safety Net Project is teaming up with a coalition of domestic violence programs in the Netherlands to assist in building and launching SafetyNED - a national project focused on supporting online privacy and security for victims of domestic violence.

Next week, NNEDV’s Executive Vice President and founder of NNEDV’s Safety Net Project Cindy Southworth and Safety Net Technology Safety Specialist Corbin Streett will spend the week meeting with key stakeholders and technology companies, training new tech advocates, and participating in the 2017 Combine Congress.

In our 17 years of working on this issue, we’ve learned how critical it is for everyone to be working together and to be a part of this conversation. From advocates and service providers to law enforcement, policymakers, and technology companies, the collective knowledge, skills, and expertise of everyone is needed to address the multifaceted needs of survivors and move forward towards an end to violence. We’re delighted to be part of this new project and to be coming together on June 22 for the Combine Congress. Working in partnership, our collective efforts can truly make a difference!