Several years ago, at the start of my career at AT&T, I spoke with a customer of a small town in New England on a standard network. Before the end of our conversation, the customer asked if he could share an unrelated story on the problem she had with her personal wireless plan.
I expected the usual history of the frustration of customers, but what she told me was unexpected.
The customer left an abusive relationship and his shared wireless plan presented challenges. Its history has revealed the increasingly complicated intersection of connected technology, hardware, software and domestic violence.
Our conversation brought me back to my days as a former assistant attorney general, where I worked on legal and political issues related to domestic violence. While only a few years withdrawn from this role, the landscape had clearly changed due to the proliferation of connected technology.
I got out of this interaction with a series of questions, including if there were ways to better support the digital security of survivors. At the time, I did not know that the experience of this client – and his decision to reveal it to me – would revive a multi -year project to highlight the dangers hiding in digital shadows.
I asked my questions to the defenders of prevention of domestic violence and the leaders of public security in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. A dynamic has become clear: this customer was not alone. The defenders explained how his experience was common in many ways. They explained how technology can be used in abusive relationships to control, track down and harass the current or ex-partner. In addition, as technology is constantly evolving, its use in abusive behavior also continues. Technological abuse had become one of the most urgent problems in the space of domestic violence.
Led by many defenders of prevention of domestic violence and technological experts from AT&T, we have collaborated to raise awareness and provide resources. In the Rhode Island, the center of Elizabeth Buffum Chace, and in Massachusetts, Jane Doe Inc., the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance, the passing programs and Haven of the Mass General Brigham, and many others, added their knowledge to what has finally become a new digital security initiative.
Launched in November at Rhode Island and February in Boston, the initiative highlights potential dangers and aims to allow survivors to engage more solidly with connected technology. It consists of a continuous series of presentations in person and virtual offered to members of the community of defenders, the police, health care establishments and others who serve survivors. More recently, a presentation took place in April in the Police Department of Gardner with the Gardner domestic violence working group.
The presentation highlights the potential vulnerabilities of wireless devices and data and related related accounts. The subjects covered include the operation of shared accounts; Device parameters which are relevant to domestic violence; and applications information.
The equipment also seeks to publicize the SAFE Connections ACT, which the Congress promulgated to relieve the steps between the providers and the survivors trying to separate wireless accounts. The law allows survivors to separate more easily from a plan shared with an abusive partner; To keep their phone number; and benefit from confidentiality and security guarantees.
Although intrinsically neither good nor bad, technology can be used badly to control, harass or intimidate others. Awareness of the digital landscape and its subtleties is crucial to promote the safety of survivors of domestic violence and strengthen individualized security planning strategies.
We are grateful for the tireless efforts of defenders who support survivors of domestic violence every day and for their collaboration on this new initiative. We look forward to implementing it by their side and obtaining information from those who need it most.
Our gratitude extends particularly to that surviving whose courage and history have led to the creation of an innovative effort to raise awareness of several states.
Edmund Donelly is Director of External Affairs of AT&T Massachusetts. For more information, visit, AttConnects.com/getting-digital-sail-sources-in-ore-hands.
Read the original article on Mass.
