Technology Facilitated Abuse, Women's Work and Financial Empowerment

Technology Facilitated Abuse, Women's Work and Financial Empowerment 

8:30 -10: 00 am, March 13th 

Representative of WESNET (the lady on the right hand in the first picture), a non-profit NGO, talked about technology abuse and domestic violence associated with the misuse of technology, including stalking through mobile phone apps and social media. She also mentioned their training program and services for women, such as providing free smartphones for women who face the safety issue about e-stalking. 

Two experts talked about spyware/monitoring software that can be installed remotely or downloaded online. And how women can confirm whether they experience e-stalking by their partners. By paying attention to when their partners know their location, women can get a sense about whether there is a tracker in their phone, in the car or somewhere else. 

They mentioned many examples about how women experienced violence by their abusive partners. For example, how changing passwords can trigger anger of abusive partner and leads to domestic violence. It is helpful to know that enduring stalking is not a good way to show loyalty while the phenomenon is pretty universal. And it is striking to know that it is illegal to stalk partners even if they are married. 

It is also helpful to get tips to prevent and handle e-stalking from them, such as the good timing to tweet, limiting location access, and collection proofs. In the Q&A section, they talked about laws in different countries to protect women and taking screenshots to show to the police department to report threat.