Digital Privacy and Safety for Advocates Supporting Survivors.

In today’s digital age, technology plays a significant role in our daily lives, providing us with communication, access to information, and various other conveniences. However, for individuals experiencing domestic violence, technology can become a tool for control, surveillance, and harassment. Securing devices, such as smartphones, computers, and tablets, is crucial to ensuring the safety and privacy of victims.

Webinar Description:

Technology plays a crucial role for survivors of domestic violence as it can help them connect with people they trust and reach out for help. Nevertheless, it also exposes them to numerous digital risks that an abuser could leverage to monitor and harass them. Diana Freed, and Julio Poveda, will provide an overview of the most common security and privacy risks survivors are exposed to and what they could do to protect their online accounts and devices from abusive (ex)partners. They will also talk about the role AI is/can play to empower survivors.

About our Speakers:

Diana Freed is a PhD candidate in Information Science at Cornell University and a 2024 incoming Assistant Professor at Brown University in the Department of Computer Science and the Data Science Institute. Diana will be a joint Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and at The Center for Research on Computation and Society at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Diana researches the intersection of technology and society, focusing on security and privacy, human-computer interaction, digital literacy, behavioral health, and technology policy to improve online safety and well-being for vulnerable and marginalized populations. She is a recipient of the Meta Research Fellowship, a Digital Life Doctoral Fellowship at Cornell Tech, a Data and Society Research Institute Fellowship, and a graduate of NYU and Columbia University. Her research has been recognized with multiple paper awards and has been featured in media outlets that include The New York Times, MIT Technology Review, Wired, NPR, and Time Magazine.

Julio Poveda is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Maryland. He is a security and privacy researcher and holds a Master’s Degree in Information Security and a Bachelor’s degree in Systems and Computing Engineering from Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. Julio has presented to advocates at the New York City Office to End Gender Based Violence, Sanctuary for families, Rights & Security International and the University of California, Santa Cruz.

This project is supported by Grant No. 15JOVW-21-GK-02255-MUMU awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication/program/ exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence.