Smart-home devices are being used in nefarious ways by domestic partners (and exes) who remotely control thermostats, locks, cameras, lights and other IoT products in a modern-day form of domestic abuse.
“The people who called into the help hotlines and domestic violence shelters said they felt as if they were going crazy,” reports the New York Times on “a new pattern of behavior in domestic abuse cases tied to the rise of smart home technology,”
The paper interviewed more than 30 abuse victims, lawyers, shelter workers and responders, finding an alarming rise in the exploitation of connected products to harass, confuse and intimidate victims.
Abusers — using apps on their smartphones, which are connected to the internet-enabled devices — would remotely control everyday objects in the home, sometimes to watch and listen, other times to scare or show power. Even after a partner had left the home, the devices often stayed and continued to be used to intimidate and confuse.
Most of the smart-home abuse victims are women. Most connected devices are installed by men. Many women don't even have the home-automation apps on their phones, despite living in a connected place, according to researchers.
“Usually, one person in a relationship takes charge of putting in the technology, knows how it works and has all the passwords,” the NYT reports. “This gives that person the power to turn the technology against the other person.”
All the (corroborated) victims interviewed by the Times were women, many from wealthier communities, where smart-home technology is prevalent:
Each said the use of internet-connected devices by their abusers was invasive — one called it a form of “jungle warfare” because it was hard to know where the attacks were coming from. They also described it as an asymmetry of power because their partners had control over the technology — and by extension, over them.
The legal community is grappling with this new form of domestic terror, according to the report. Advocates are urging victims and their representatives to ask judges to include smart-home accounts (known and unknown) in restraining orders.
“But even if people get restraining orders, remotely changing the temperature in a house or suddenly turning on the TV or lights may not contravene a no-contact order,” according to a NYT source.
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