Charity Alerts: Abusers Employ AI and Digital Technologies to Target and Manipulate Women

“It is unacceptable for the safety and wellbeing of women and girls to be an afterthought in technology design. Their security should be the cornerstone that informs the development of wearable devices and the regulations that govern their use,” she emphasized.

Refuge also stressed that the facilitation of abuse via smart technologies indicates a pressing need to incorporate safety considerations into the design of these products from the outset.

A poignant example involves a survivor named Mina, who was forced to leave her smartwatch behind as she escaped her abuser. This device ultimately became a tool for tracking her whereabouts, as her abuser accessed linked cloud accounts to discover her location, even after she moved to a safe space.

Mina described her experience, stating: “[It] was deeply shocking and frightening. I felt suddenly exposed and unsafe, knowing that my location was being tracked without my consent. It created a constant sense of paranoia; I couldn’t relax, sleep properly, or feel settled anywhere because I knew my movements weren’t private.”

Even after the authorities returned the smartwatch to Mina, her abuser was still able to locate her through a private investigator, who allegedly employed similar tracking technology. When Mina reported these violations to the police, her concerns were dismissed on the premise that she had “not come to any harm.”

She expressed frustration, saying, “I was repeatedly advised to relocate for my safety instead of addressing the underlying issues with the smartwatch or confiscating it from him. Each move made me feel increasingly unstable and displaced. Overall, the experience left me feeling unsafe, unheard, and responsible for managing a situation that was completely out of my control. It illuminated just how tech abuse can extend coercive control silently and powerfully, leaving survivors to shoulder an emotional and practical burden when the systems designed to protect them fail to understand the issue fully.”

Pickering further noted that abusers are increasingly employing AI to manipulate evidence against survivors. For instance, they may edit videos to create a false narrative of the victim as a drunken or erratic individual, thereby providing false justification to social services and other authorities to label them as unfit parents or a risk to themselves and others. “As these technologies evolve, we will likely witness more instances of such manipulative tactics,” she cautioned.

Moreover, the head of the abuse team highlighted alarming potential abuses of medical technologies, noting that tools designed to monitor vital health metrics—such as diabetes trackers—could be weaponized to control critical aspects of a survivor’s health, proving fatal in certain circumstances.

In light of these growing concerns, Pickering urged the government to prioritize addressing digital technology-enabled crimes, suggesting that more funding is needed to train specialized digital investigations teams capable of tackling these intricate and evolving challenges. “The government often seeks immediate solutions but fails to invest in long-term strategies to keep pace with these rapid technological advancements. Without proper investment, we will fall behind,” she cautioned.

She also called for accountability within the tech industry, asserting that tech companies must ensure their products are designed to protect vulnerable individuals and prevent facilitation of abuse. “Current regulations and frameworks—like those from Ofcom and the Online Safety Act—are insufficient,” she stated.

In response to these concerns, a government spokesperson stated: “Addressing violence against women and girls in all its forms, including when facilitated through technology, is a top priority for this administration. Our new Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy articulates how we intend to deploy the full capabilities of the state, both online and offline. We are collaborating with Ofcom to enhance how online platforms address the disproportionate abuse women and girls face in digital spaces.”