Protecting Your Online Privacy

If you think you may be in an abusive relationship, be careful using the internet to get information. A computer you share with your partner may not be safe. You can follow these guidelines to stay safe online, using email and over the phone.

Computer Privacy

• If you are in danger, try to use a safe computer to which someone abusive does not have direct or remote access.

• If you think your activities are being monitored, they probably are. Abusive people are often controlling and want to know your every move. You don’t need to be a computer programmer or have special skills to monitor someone’s computer and Internet activities – anyone can do it and there are many ways to monitor with programs like Spyware, keystroke loggers and hacking tools.

• It is not possible to delete or clear all the “footprints” of your computer or online activities. If you are being monitored, it may be dangerous to change your computer behaviors such as suddenly deleting your entire Internet history if that is not your regular habit.

• If you think you may be monitored on your home computer, be careful how you use your computer since the person abusing you might become suspicious. You may want to keep using the monitored computer for innocuous activities, like looking up the weather. Use a safer computer to research an escape plan, look for new jobs or apartments, bus tickets, or ask for help.

• Email, online messaging and text messaging are not safe or confidential ways to talk to someone about the danger or abuse in your life. If possible, please call a hotline instead. If you use email or IM, please use a safer computer and an account that this person does not know about.

• Computers can store a lot of private information about what you look at via the Internet, the emails and instant messages you send, internet-based phone and IP-TTY calls you make, web-based purchases and banking, and many other activities.

• It might be safer to use a computer at a public library, a community technology center (CTC), a trusted friend’s house, or an Internet Café.

Source: National Network to End Domestic Violence

Email Privacy
The person harming you could have access to your email account if:

• You share an email account.

• You use Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, or a similar program to check your email. These programs allow anybody who has access to your computer to read your email.

• Your computer is set up to save our email address and password.

• You write your password down. If you absolutely must write down a new password the first time or two you use it, be sure you keep it in a very safe, hidden place—not a sticky note stuck to your computer or your desk! Once you’ve memorized it, shred it—don’t just toss it in the trash.

Source: National Network to End Domestic Violence

Cell Phone Privacy
If you use a cell phone, be aware there are numerous ways a person can use cell phone technology to overhear your calls or locate you.

• Use a cell phone only if you do not have access to a regular phone, and make sure that you do not give any identifying details on a cell phone.

• If the person harming you works for a phone company or law enforcement agency, use extreme caution, and discuss cell phone safety with a domestic violence advocate.

• A cellular phone in “silent mode” or “auto answer” can serve as a tracking device. Some recent models of cell phones have GPS (Global Positioning System), which is a location-finding feature. You can check with your phone company to learn if your cell phone has this feature.

• If you are fleeing from your partner, either turn off your cell phone or leave it behind.

• Wireless carriers are required to complete 9-1-1 calls, even when a phone is not activated. Any phone that turns on and receives a signal is capable of making 9-1-1 calls. It is important to know that if the phone you’re using isn’t activated, i.e., there isn’t a phone number assigned to it, and you’re disconnected from the 9-1-1 dispatch center, you must call 9-1-1 back.

Source: National Network to End Domestic Violence