Key Takeaways
- Technology abuse generally falls into four categories: tracking, hacking, harassing, and controlling a person's access to accounts, money, or other people.
- Survivors should plan for safety before cutting off an abuser's access, since abusers may escalate, and should preserve digital evidence in more than one place.
- Every state outlaws threats, harassment, and stalking, and survivors may also seek protective orders, sue for damages, and use newer federal laws on intimate images and shared phone plans.
Phones, apps, and social media help us stay connected, but in an abusive relationship the same tools can be used to watch, threaten, and control. How can survivors recognize technology abuse, stay safe, and use the law to fight back?
In this TalksOnLaw Brief, Eboni K. Williams, a lawyer, journalist, and longtime advocate for domestic violence survivors, explains the forms technology abuse takes and shares safety and legal tips drawn from public interest and pro bono attorneys.
Recognizing Technology Abuse
The first step, Williams explains, is identifying the abuse. She groups it into four categories. Tracking means following a person's location and online activity, often through GPS devices or phone apps, including the same location apps families use to find children or a lost phone. Hacking means getting into someone's social media accounts or devices without permission. Harassing is repeated contact through social, online, or digital channels. Controlling is about limiting access, such as cutting a person off from friends, family, email, or bank accounts.
Planning for Safety
Because every situation is different, Williams encourages survivors to trust their instincts. A safety plan starts with figuring out whether someone has access to your devices or is monitoring your whereabouts. If you suspect monitoring, use a different device or an account the abuser cannot access. She cautions that abusers sometimes escalate when they sense they are being cut off, so think through how the abuser may respond before removing access. Check device settings, look for accounts and apps you do not recognize, and consider keeping old devices in use while setting up new ones that trusted friends and family can reach. Documentation is critical: to prove abuse in court you need evidence, so keep logs, make copies, forward files to other accounts, and share them with a trusted person.
Your Legal Rights
Survivors have legal rights, Williams emphasizes. Every state has laws against threats, harassment, and stalking, and some states have laws aimed specifically at online stalking or cyber abuse. A survivor can seek a protective order requiring the abuser to stop, and can file a civil lawsuit seeking money damages for harassment, threats, or stalking. She urges anyone experiencing technology abuse to seek help from an attorney or a victim assistance organization.
What to Know Now
The legal tools available to survivors have grown. The 2022 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act created a federal civil claim for people whose intimate images are disclosed without consent, allowing damages and court orders to stop distribution. The Safe Connections Act of 2022 requires mobile carriers, at a survivor's documented request, to separate the survivor's line from a shared plan with the abuser; the FCC's rules became enforceable in July 2024. The Take It Down Act, enacted in 2025, makes it a federal crime to knowingly publish nonconsensual intimate images, including certain AI-generated forgeries, and since May 2026 the Federal Trade Commission has enforced its requirement that platforms remove such images within 48 hours of a valid request. In threat cases, the Supreme Court held in Counterman v. Colorado (2023) that prosecutors must show the speaker was at least reckless about the threatening nature of the statements, which shapes how some online stalking cases are charged. Survivors can reach trained advocates through the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
