‘Safety by design’ features can reduce stalking and domestic violence — but we need companies to apply it
Technology-enabled violence is more present than ever
Creating risk
At present, major tech companies often design and manage devices and digital media without considering user vulnerabilities.
Until 2020, Google allowedspyware and stalkerware– software designed to be covertly installed on a phone to monitor and record photos, videos, texts, calls, and other information – to be freely advertised on its platform. It banned the ads amidst mounting evidence that this kind of software is used toenact intimate partner violence.
In April 2021, Apple released coin-sized tiles called AirTags intended to help people keep track of belongings via Bluetooth signals. After they were criticized as presenting a serious security risk by enablingstalking of intimate partners, Appleupdated the devicesto make them beep at random intervals if they were away from the owner’s phone.
Facebook’s new smart glasses have alsosparked privacy concerns, likeSnapchat’s SpectaclesandGoogle Glassbefore them. The glasses contain cameras and microphones that enable (potentially covert) recording.
Facebook did consult groupssuch as the US National Network to End Domestic Violence in an effort to “innovate responsibly”, though there are still concerns about how the glasses might be used.
Recognizing user realities and threat
Traditional ideas of cybersecurity are focused on “stranger threats”. However, to reduce and combat digital domestic and family violence we need an “intimate threat” model.
Partners and families can compel others to provide access to devices. They may be linked to online accounts or able to guess passwords, based on their intimate knowledge of the owner.
In this context, technologies that enable surveillance and recording can be used to constrain and threaten victims and survivors in alarming ways, in everyday life.
Understanding and seeking to alleviate the risk posed by abusers requires platforms and industry to think proactively about how technologies may be co-opted or weaponized.
Safety by Design
The eSafety Commissioner’sSafety by Designinitiative aims to make user safety a priority in the design, development and deployment of online products, and services. The initiative revolves around three basic principles.
The first is that service providers are responsible for making user safety the number one priority. This means platforms and other companies work to anticipate how their products may facilitate, increase or encourage harm. In this way, the burden of safety will not fall solely on the user.
The second is that users should have the power and autonomy to make decisions in their own best interest. Platforms and services should engage in meaningful consultation with users, including diverse and at-risk groups, to ensure their features and functions are accessible and helpful to all.
The third principle is transparency and accountability about operations and published safety objectives is essential. This also helps users to address safety concerns.
There is growing support for these principles among tech companies. Last year IBM published its own guide to “coercive control resistant design”.
Effective approaches must also acknowledge how intersecting or overlapping forms of structural or systemic oppression shape an individual’s experience of technology and can deepen social inequalities.
To realize the goals of safety by design or coercive control resistant design, we will need to review not only the policies but also the actual practices of platforms and industry, as they emerge.
How tech can improve
eSafety has producedSafety by Design assessment toolsto improve and innovate based on good practice and evidence-informed resources and templates.
Platforms and industry have a key role to play in addressing the impacts of domestic and family violence through design. They can and should do more in this space.
Article byBridget Harris, Associate professor,Queensland University of Technology
This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists.An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists.
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.
