Stalkerware: Tech-enabled domestic abuse skyrocketing
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 16 November 2021
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With the number of devices infected with stalkerware rising by over 60% in a year, many are worried about the consequences. Ivana Davidovic speaks with Maria who, even after managing to leave her abusive husband of 25 years, was still not free from his clutches.
Eva Galperin, who founded the global Coalition Against Stalkerware, explains how more training of law enforcement agencies is needed because many victims feel they are being gaslighted when they ask for help. She is also fighting for greater inclusion of stalkerware apps among anti-virus software manufacturers.
In October this year, Google pulled several stalkerware adverts for apps that encouraged prospective users to spy on their partners’ phone. One of those apps, SpyFone, was banned by the US Federal Trade Commission in September for harvesting and sharing data about people’s movements and activities via a hidden device hack. Despite these positive moves, stalkerware apps and advice on how to use them are still easily accessible online.
Xena Olsen tells how she became a cybersecurity expert after being a victim of stalkerware by her then-fiancé - and she offers tips on what to do if you are worried for your own safety. And Rosanna Bellini, from the Clinic to End Tech Abuse, says how sometimes their clients are advised not to immediately remove cyber-stalking apps from their phones as that could increase the risk of physical violence.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily with me, Ivana Dividovic. In today's program, not knowing |
| 0:06.2 | who may be tracking or watching you is the stuff of nightmares. What if your partner was monitoring |
| 0:11.9 | your every move through your smartphone? I was engaged and really weird stuff kept happening |
| 0:18.8 | with my phone. The battery would drain and my partner somehow |
| 0:23.6 | knowing where I was all the time, even though I didn't tell him, him knowing conversations that I'd |
| 0:29.7 | never shared with him before. With a number of devices infected with stalk away rising by over |
| 0:34.9 | 60% in a year, many are worried about the consequences. |
| 0:38.6 | In the domestic abuse cases that I see, some level of tech-enabled abuse is almost universally |
| 0:47.4 | there. What's particularly alarming about stalk-aware is that it is often linked to the most violent and disturbing cases because it is such a powerful |
| 0:59.7 | tool of coercive control. That's all coming up in Business Daily from the BBC. I grew up in a loving |
| 1:09.2 | Catholic family, Sunday dinners with families, family was very important, |
| 1:13.3 | and so I wanted that in a relationship. And when I met my husband at the time, I thought it was love. |
| 1:22.4 | I have since now know that that's not what love is. It's not to hurt like it did. |
| 1:29.1 | Six years ago, Maria, who lives on the East Coast of America, |
| 1:32.6 | finally ended her abusive marriage of 25 years. |
| 1:36.4 | With the help of a church and close friends, |
| 1:38.7 | she slowly formulated an escape plan. |
| 1:41.7 | But even when she thought she was free from her husband's control, |
| 1:45.0 | it was just a mirage. The abuse, the mind control started slowly, daily name calling. |
| 1:59.1 | And I'm going to be graphic here, but he would call me |
| 2:01.4 | c-h-hick. He would call me hairy bitch, which to this day I have triggers. |
| 2:06.2 | Like, I shave everything on my body because of the hair. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.