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What is this guide? Why have it?

Safety Net often gets questions about how survivors can document the abuse. Documentation can be helpful to you in many ways, including how you interact with systems (such as courts) and how you manage the risks you experience. You can document both tech and non-tech abuse. Some of the reasons that you may want to document are:

  • It will give you a record of what is happening. This may be helpful if you want to involve the police or seek a restraining order.

  • It can alert you to any escalation in monitoring and control. This may indicate that the abuser is becoming more dangerous.

  • It can help you see patterns in the abuser’s behavior.

  • It may help figure out how the abuser is misusing a particular technology.

What might I want to document?

Tech-facilitated abuse can be complicated. Sometimes it can be difficult to figure out what you need, or what you want to document. To provide a starting place, here is a list of some ways that an abuser might misuse technology. This list does not include every possibility. In addition, the fact that something is on the list does not mean that it is what is going on in your situation. To narrow down what may be happening, it can be useful to go through our survivor resources toolkit. An advocate or other helper can go through it with you.

There are many ways that abusers and stalkers misuse technology. These are some of them.

  • Monitoring technology use. This includes (but isn’t limited to):

    • Computers;

    • Cell phones;

    • Tablets;

    • “Smart” devices;

    • Connected cars, or

    • Assistive technology.

  • Sending unwanted or threatening messages. These could be text messages, voicemail, or direct messages on an app.

  • Posting negative comments about you, or images of you, online.

  • Encouraging other people to harass you online or in person.

  • Hacking your accounts.

Why narrow it down?

The ways that abusers and stalkers use tech to harass and control may be hard to believe. Trust your instincts. If you believe that you are being abused or stalked through technology, you might be. It can be helpful to write down what is happening. This includes both the tech used and how the person is using it. This can help you figure out if stalking is occurring. If it is, it can help you or a helper decide what to do about it.

Narrowing it down helps in another way. Tech is part of our daily lives. The experience of tech abuse can seem all-encompassing. This can make you worry that every problem with your tech is part of the abuse. The anxiety can make it hard to function. Narrowing down what is happening can help lower that anxiety.

Documentation Tips

Many people are not sure what “counts” as useful documentation. This section provides some guidelines. You may already have some documentation that doesn’t follow these guidelines. That doesn’t mean that what you already documented is not useful. These guidelines are about making your documentation even stronger. In some cases, you may be able to add to your existing documentation. For example, if you already have screenshots or phone records, you can add them to an incident log.

  • Keep a log of all incidents, even if you are not sure if you want to involve the police or courts. Some of the information you might want to include is:

    • The date and time;

    • The location (this could be a link to a post);

    • If you reported it, officer information and date that you reported;

    • Witnesses (if any);

    • Technology involved (e.g., phone, email, etc.), and;

    • A brief description of what the abuser did.

    If you aren’t sure what this could look like, SPARC’s sample log may help.

  • Save everything related to the event or incident. If you receive a threatening note or message, make sure you save it. While it may be tempting to delete it, saving it could show patterns. This can help you determine safety strategies and provide needed evidence. You can learn more about ways to do this in the How to Document section below.

  • Think about technology that you suspect the abuser could be using. This could help you figure out where to look for evidence. Your suspicions could be based on the type of abuse, the tactics involved, or what you know about the abuser. If you aren’t sure what kind of technology the abuser is using, that’s okay.

  • Think about your safety first. In some cases, when abusers know that victims are documenting the abuse, they might escalate the abuse. You will know best how to assess the situation and what could happen. Trust your instincts. It’s okay to do what is safest for you.

  • Document only relevant information. Keep in mind that this information could potentially be used as evidence in a court. It could also be inadvertently shared with the abuser at some point. For example, you may not want to document personal photos that aren’t being used as part of the abuse.

How to Document

How to document is as important as why and what to document. The previous section focused on general guidelines. This section discusses the details of the “how” – how to use devices to gather different kinds of evidence.

Screenshots

A screenshot is an image that your device captures of part or all of its own screen. Most devices have built-in ways to take screenshots. These may vary by brand and even by model. To find out how to take screenshots on your device, you can use a search engine (such as Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.) to search “how to take screenshots” plus the name of your device or browser. For example, if you are trying to screenshot a Google Pixel 6, you could search “how to take screenshots Google Pixel 6.” If you are trying to take a screenshot on a Microsoft Edge web browser, you could search “how to take screenshots Edge browser” or a similar phrase.

WARNING: Some messaging apps (including social media apps that have a direct message feature) notify the other person if you take a screenshot of your conversation. Features and settings change frequently on apps, so this resource cannot list which apps do and do not notify the other person. To find out whether an app notifies the other person, you can test with a friend or try to look it up.

Some apps block screenshots for privacy reasons. In this case, consider what other methods of documentation you could use.

Screen recordings

A screen recording is similar to a screenshot, except that it is a video instead of an image. This can be especially helpful if you are trying to document something that doesn’t fit on your screen. There are apps that you can use for screen recording. Depending on your device or browser, there may be built-in tools. Some devices commonly used by gamers have built-in tools to make it easy to record gaming videos. For example, on Windows 11 you can open the Xbox Game Bar, which has a screen recording feature, by holding down the key with a Windows logo on it and pressing ‘G’. These may be helpful to you.

WARNING: Just as with screenshots, some messaging apps (including social media apps that have a direct message feature) notify the other person if you take a screen recording of your conversation. Features and settings change frequently on apps, so this resource cannot list which apps do and do not notify the other person. To find out whether an app notifies the other person, you can test with a friend or try to look it up.

Photos or videos of your device

This is a simple option. All you need is a second, safer device that can take pictures or videos. Use your second device to take photos or video of the screen of the device with evidence on it. This is an especially good option if you need to document evidence from apps that tell the other person if you took a screenshot or screen recording. Look at the pictures or videos that you take to make sure that the quality is good enough. You may need to adjust the lighting in the room.

Archiving sites and tools

Archiving sites and tools allow you to keep reliable copies of evidence.

If you are okay with the content of a webpage being preserved online, you can use an archiving site. The Internet Archive and Archive Today are examples of archiving sites. Once you save a url (link) on an archiving site, a copy of the page will stay there even if the person who created the original page takes it down or changes it. The copy will include the date and time that you created it, which could help you prove that the page looked a certain way at a certain time. Once you make a copy with an archiving site, it can be difficult to get the copy removed from the Internet. Only use these if you are okay with the content of the copy being online. Archiving sites will usually not work on content where you have to be logged in in order to see it.

Archiving tools like ArchiveBox use a similar concept. But instead of storing copies in an online archive, they let you store the copies on your own device. This means that other people won’t be able to find and view the copies on the Internet. They may also let you make copies of content that you have to be logged in to access. The disadvantage of these archiving tools is that they are usually more difficult to use. If you want to use one, but don’t feel that you are “techie” enough to set one up, you might be able to ask a “techie” friend or family member to help you.

Printouts

If you can keep pieces of paper secure, printouts can be a low-tech option. If you don’t have a printer, you may still be able to access one. Printers may log your activity. If you have to use a work or school account to print, the IT department may be able to see that the printing was done with your account. Consider whether you are okay with this before using one. If you decide that you want to use a printer, here are some options:

  • A friend’s or family member’s printer.

  • A printer at a library.

  • A school or work printer, if your school or work allows occasional personal use of its computers and technology.

What to Document

Just as the last section discussed the details of how to document, this section discusses the details of what to document. As part of the “what,” it includes “how” tips that are specific to types of content, such as tips that only apply to email, or to social media/internet harassment.

Email

  • Emails contain IP addresses and other information. This information may be able to help identify the sender. Because of that, it’s important to not delete the email. A forwarded email will not have the same information, so forwarding to someone else is not enough. If it is distressing to see the un-deleted emails in your inbox, you can try moving them to their own email folder.

  • If saving email content by printing or taking screenshots, be sure to also save the email header (often hidden and can be found in the settings). This is where information about the sender and the path the email took, if it exists, is stored. Depending on the email platform you are using (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, etc.), how you access the email header will be different.

  • If you’re concerned that the abuser could access the account and delete emails, then try to print out or take screen shots of the content, including the headers. Forwarded emails will lose the identifying information needed for evidence.

 Text Messages

  • Text messages that are just stored on a phone may be inadvertently deleted or may be automatically deleted if you run out of space. Take a screenshot or picture of the text messages to retain the evidence.

  • Also take a screenshot of the contact page to show that the harassing messages from the abuser are associated with the abuser’s phone number.

  • Text message content is kept by the wireless carrier only for a limited time. If you are working with law enforcement, be sure to ask them to send a preservation letter to the phone company as soon as possible, so the phone company knows not to destroy the data.

Social Media/Internet Harassment

  • You may want to document social media/Internet harassment. You can use one of the methods in the “How to document” section. The simplest way is usually a screenshot. If you suspect that the abuser has access to your device, make sure to store the screenshot somewhere else. Some apps will notify the other person if someone takes a screenshot of certain types of posts. Consider looking up whether this is the case for the app/post you want to screenshot. If it is, you may want to take a photo of your device’s screen instead.

  • Some apps offer their own ways to document activity. For example, Facebook has a “Download Your Information” feature with a “Specific Types of Information” setting. This feature and setting allow you to save logs of how your account has been used, and by what devices. This could be used as documentation that someone else was using your account.

  • Browser extensions – apps for your web browser – may also help you document. Below are a few examples. Safety Net does not recommend specific products. Products change over time and may even be shut down. You should check whether any tool you use is allowed by the app. These are only listed to illustrate different kinds of documentation.

    • IG Exporter is an extension for Google Chrome. It allows you to download a list of all the comments on a post. You can also set it to download information, like the times the comments were posted.

    • TTCommentExporter does the same thing but for TikTok.

    • Video DownloadHelper is an extension for major browsers. It can download videos from some video sites and social media apps.

    • FireShot lets you take a screenshot of an entire webpage, rather than just the part that is visible on your screen. It also lets you take screenshots of several pages at once.

  • If you are working with law enforcement, they have more options. They could send a letter to the social media or website company. This kind of letter asks the company to preserve the account information. This ensures that the company will not delete the information as part of their normal procedures. They might also be able to ask the company for information about a specific account.

  • You may consider reporting the harassment to the app or website company. If it violates the site’s terms of service or content guidelines, they may remove it. Note that this could remove potential evidence. Consider documenting the abuse first.

Harassing Phone Calls

  • You could consider recording your phone conversations to keep evidence of harassing or threatening calls. However, check whether your state allows you to record phone conversations without informing the other party. Some states will allow you to record a phone call that you are part of without telling the other person. Other states require that everyone in a call consent to a recording.

Phone Number/Caller ID Impersonation

  • Document your call logs by taking a photograph of the Caller ID. Be sure to include the date and time of the calls.

  • Below is a tech abuse log that you can use to help document what is happening to you. You can also see above for a link to the Stalking Prevention, Awareness, and Resource Center (SPARC)’s sample log.

Sample Tech Abuse Log