We use cookies to make your experience of our websites better. By using and further navigating this website you accept this. Detailed information about the use of cookies on this website is available by clicking on more information. If you reject, you will be taken back to the site you came from.
OUR ORIGINAL SERIES
Latest stories of our network
The tech fuelling a new wave of gender violence
Stalkerware is making headlines, for all the wrong reasons
How could her partner know where she is every day? Why does his girlfriend know who he's messaging? The answer could be a disturbing new technology that's fuelling a new wave of violence across the globe. The worst thing? It's as easy as downloading an app.
This app can install violence
Consumer surveillance and privacy are hot topics. Not only because they're the cornerstone of our human rights, but now digital tech is pressing the fast forward button on spying techniques. One dangerous software, fuelling a new wave of gender violence, is stalkerware.
Spouseware. Legal Spyware. Stalkerware. It has many names, but the premise is simple. Stalkerware is software used to secretly spy on another person's private life via a smart device. Usually installed secretly on mobile phones by co-called 'friends', paranoid partners (hence the spouseware title) and others, stalkerware tracks everything from the victim's physical location and internet activity, to text messages and phone calls to friends. Even though it's sometimes defined as legal spyware, it's anything but. Victims can't spot it too. Meanwhile, stalkers are accessing a wide range of personal data, and it's having bad repercussions for today's relationships.
A new form of relationship violence
Stalkerware is on the rise. In 2019, Kaspersky detected a 67 percent year-on-year increase of stalkerware on users' mobile devices globally; Germany, Italy and France were the most hit countries in Europe. Perhaps more shockingly, early data suggests the situation didn't improve in 2020. Alessandra Pauncz, Executive Director of WWP European Network, highlights how dangerous this threat is, "The effects of cyber-violence on women and girls are devastating because they're part of a continuum of violence that deprives them of their freedom."
It's fuelling a new type of violence across the globe, in which people take away their partner's freedom - in more ways than one. But aside from violating privacy, for victims and their abusers, there are other dangers. As a form of malware – short for "malicious software," a type of computer program designed to infect a user's computer and inflict harm – these programs can expose the victims' data and breach protection tech, increasing the chances of their device getting infected by other malware.
It might sound like attackers are predominantly men, but Eva Galperin, Director of Cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, notes that "this is not just a 'men spying on women' issue." From former spouses spying on people through internet-connect thermostats to men being outed as gay, Eva and her team have seen all manner of stalkerware victims and cases.
Fighting for online privacy and data protection
Before stalkerware hit the mainstream, Eva was leading the fightback. She was outraged by a hacker who abused women then threatened to compromise their devices if they spoke out. Now she's an influential voice in the fight against stalkerware, helping thousands of victims get their privacy back. Watch her story, featured in our series Defenders of Digital.
Education can combat stalkerware
Stalkerware isn't the easiest enemy to spot, but it starts with education. As Alfonso Ramirez, General Manager at Kaspersky Spain says, "It's quite hard to fight against stalkerware using only tech tools. However, it would really help if practitioners and users are aware stalkerware exists, know how to recognize the signs of this software being installed on their devices and what to do next."
As awareness rises, with Eva and others leading the charge, new global initiatives to fight back are cropping up, like DeStalk. Created by Kaspersky and NGO partners, DeStalk is an EU-wide project designed to educate people, professionals and the government on how to spot stalkers and deal with them.
We have a gender violence pandemic on our hands. Help fight stalkerware. Check out Stop Stalkerware to educate yourself and your loved ones.
- Tomorrow Unlocked > Digital Defenders: tech experts that protect ... ›
- Tomorrow Unlocked > Cybersecurity experts give their online ... ›
Fighting police for openness on cell tracking
Chicago's tiny not-for-profit taking on powerful institutions.
The history of surveillance is one of control. As monitoring technologies accelerate, one not-for-profit noticed a concerning rise in unethical police cell phone observation. Their objections led to new, stronger digital rights legislation.
Stingrays and cell phones: Is your pocket private?
Smartphones have improved our lives more than we could have imagined. We work on them, use them to take and store private photos and they know where we are at any moment. But with advanced surveillance techniques, phones have become a powerful way for law enforcement to observe and identify us, ethically or not.
Last year's change to remote life made us all digital. Are we now in danger of trading private digital data for convenient digital services? Check out Kaspersky's privacy predictions for 2021 and learn how this year is going to affect our privacy in cyberspace.
One Chicago not-for-profit, Lucy Parsons Labs, is demanding government agencies like the police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) be more transparent about how and why they track people through their phones. Defenders of Digital episode three speaks with Lucy Parsons Labs' Executive Director Freddy Martinez about how law enforcement use technologies to covertly observe people, what it means for digital rights and how his team made US legal history.
- data privacy ›
- Tomorrow Unlocked > Cyber Battle for Privacy ›
- Tomorrow Unlocked > People fighting online child exploitation, one image at a time ›
- Tomorrow Unlocked > Data versus Trust ›
Empowering African women against cyber-harassment
Safe Sisters fight harassment and 'revenge porn' with education
Online abuse and cyber-harassment mean a disproportionate number of women remove themselves from crucial discussions. One not-for-profit is making a change for women in East Africa.
Can women protect themselves from online harassment?
In the digital age, not only do we send videos to friends and sing online karaoke with those we've never met, many are using social media to fight for equality. But online harassment, image-based sexual abuse (also called 'revenge porn') and cyberattacks can stop women especially from being part of the conversation that leads to real change. These cowardly acts also leave victims feeling embarrassed, ashamed and alone.
Safe Sisters is a fellowship program empowering girls and women, especially human rights activists, journalists and those in the media, to fight online abuse. In Defenders of Digital season two episode five, Safe Sisters' Immaculate Nabwire explains a landmark Ugandan image-based sexual abuse case that inspires her, the digital threats women in East Africa face and how her team are fighting for change.