As modern technology proliferates, so do the avenues for intimate partner violence to manifest in digital forms. Victims like Gioia discover their ex-partners deploying baby monitors, smartwatches, and location-tracking devices to discreetly monitor and exert control long after separation. Despite repeatedly informing family courts and providing evidence of this harassment, the tactics often fall below the visible threshold recognized by traditional legal systems, leaving survivors unprotected and desperate for validation.
This escalating epidemic—referred to as technology-facilitated abuse (TFA)—spans from the use of spyware, hidden cameras, and location tracking to unauthorized access to financial accounts and dissemination of intimate images online. The problem´s invisibility and complexity strain social workers, law enforcement, and victim advocates, who frequently lack the technical training required to identify or counteract these abuses effectively. A 2024 Australian study reveals that frontline responders struggle significantly to diagnose and respond to TFA, while funding for technical forensics and support remains painfully scarce. As connected devices and internet-of-things products become ubiquitous, abusers find new opportunities for coercion, from remotely controlling smart homes to weaponizing shared streaming accounts as tools of psychological distress.
Service organizations and technologists are responding with initiatives such as CETA at Cornell Tech, which bridges the gap between computer scientists and victim support agencies by offering remote tech support—often conducted by volunteers from industry heavyweights. While intervention strategies can address many surface-level abuses, abusers adapt rapidly, moving onto new devices, networks, and loopholes just as older threats are mitigated. Legal approaches struggle to keep pace: though some states have criminalized device-based stalking and updated privacy laws, enforcement is patchy, and comprehensive federal initiatives remain stalled. Meanwhile, efforts from tech giants like Apple and Meta include safety boards, user guides, and proactive blocking tools, but the effectiveness of these solutions is limited by the dual-use nature of digital technologies and inconsistencies in corporate policy enforcement.
Grassroots innovations, legislative reform, and collaboration between advocacy groups, technologists, and law enforcement are all essential to confront this evolving crisis. Yet experts stress that the core of technology-facilitated abuse is not the technology itself but the underlying pattern of control and manipulation. Without sustained funding, robust legal protections, and widespread education, survivors remain vulnerable—relying on improvised, costly measures to defend themselves and their families. Their experiences highlight the urgent need for society to recognize, believe, and support those facing tech-enabled harassment and to strengthen collective responses at all levels.
