safety alertalert exclamation

If you are in danger, please use a safer computer, call 911 or your local hotline or call the National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233 voice), 1-800-787-3224 (tty). There is always a computer trail, but you can click ESCAPE to leave the site quickly.

home>HELP for victims/survivors>

Internet and Computer Safety

If you are in danger, please try to use a safer computer that an abuser, perpetrator or stalker does not have direct or remote access to.

  • If you think your activities are being monitored, they probably are. Abusers, perpetrators, and stalkers may want to know your plans and business. You don’t need to be a computer programmer or have special skills to monitor someone else’s computer and Internet activities – anyone can do it and there are many ways to monitor with programs like Spyware, keystroke loggers and hacking tools.
  • It is not possible to delete or clear all the “footprints" of your computer or online activities. If you are being monitored, it may be dangerous to change your computer behaviors by suddenly deleting your entire Internet history if that is not your regular habit.
  • If you think you may be monitored on your home computer, be careful how you use your computer since an abuser, perpetrator or stalker might become suspicious. You may want to keep using the monitored computer for innocuous activities, like looking up the weather. Use a safer computer to research an escape plan, look for new jobs or apartments, bus tickets, or ask for help.
  • It might be safer to use a computer in a public library, at a community technology center (CTC) This link will open a new browser window. at a trusted friend’s house, or an Internet café.
  • Email and Instant/Text Messaging (IM) are not safe or confidential ways to talk to someone about the danger or abuse in your life. If possible, call a hotline instead. If you use email or IM, use a safer computer and an account your abuser, perpetrator or stalker does not know about.
  • Computers can store a lot of private information about what you look at via the Internet, the emails and instant messages you send, internet-based phone and IP-TTY calls you make, web-based purchases and banking, and many other activities.

If you are in danger:

  • Call 911,
  • Call your local hotline, or
  • Call a national hotline.

Remember that “corded” phones are more private and less interceptable than cordless phones or analog cell phones.

Be aware you may not be able to reach 911 using an Internet phone or Internet-based phone service. You may need to be prepared to use another phone to call 911.

Contact your local domestic violence program or shelter to learn about free cell phone donation programs.