overview
behaviour
Aust law
cases
management
related
guides:
Privacy
Security
& Infocrime
related
profiles:
surveillance
social
networks
|
management and the media
This page considers responses to cyberstalking, including
self-help by people online and the emergence of a cyberstalking
industry.
It covers -
introduction
We have suggested elsewhere on this site that individual
responsibility is an important aspect of being online.
So is a recognition that people can choose to manage their
online presence rather than allowing the technology -
and by extension a stalker - to manage them.
Management of that presence does not offer everyone immunity
from harassment, danger and victimisation ... just as
there is no comprehensive solution for all social interaction
offline.
Management does however offer opportunities to minimise
danger, in for example much the same way that ordinary
people deal with risk by keeping their doors locked and
being sensible about whom they invite inside. It also
offers ways of responding when cyberstalking occurs.
There is no simple solution: responses vary from individual
to individual (and from jurisdiction to jurisdiction),
in the same way that there is variation in responses to
offline stalking. Some people are better equipped than
others to deal with a nasty on the net; some are luckier
in finding advice and assistance from colleagues, service
providers, lawyers and police or other investigators.
The following paragraphs offers suggestions about risk
minimisation and about potential responses where cyberstalking
occurs.
They are not comprehensive or prescriptive. Publications
highlighted at the beginning of this note offer some pointers
from Australia and overseas; there is also a wealth of
information online (some of perceptive and practical)
regarding the experience of stalking victims and of investigators
or other third parties.
One fundamental response to cyberstalking is a decision
by victims not to allow the stalker to deny them use of
cyberspace (in the same way that an offline stalker should
not deny a victim use of roads, restaurants, shops or
public parks). Let Google be your friend.
Be skeptical about myths that all online offences are
necessarily anonymous, that effective prosecution is impossible
and that courts or police are unsympathetic.
identity management
Cyberstalkers feed on digital information: information
about their victims and signals from their victims that
the target of the stalking is in pain.
Potential victims (whether 9 or 90) can and arguably should
manage their online presence, in particular their online
identity - the information available on the net that allows
someone to build a picture of them.
That identity management includes -
- being
wary about what information you provide online, whether
it is on a FaceBook or MySpace profile,
in a blog, on a bulletin
board, in the course of chat
or in response to an online marketer's offer of an amazing
deal
- using
pseudonyms in adult chat rooms
- using
gender-neutral names in other fora
- not
taking a contact's statements at face value
- not
using a pet's name as a password (particularly if the
pet is referred to in a blog or elsewhere on the web)
- wariness
about sharing passwords with friends or colleagues (although
you may take care, they may not)
- protection
of laptops, PDAs and personal computers - including
use of passwords, caution in downloading potential spyware
and attention to keeping virus protection up to date
(few people would leave their front doors open 24/7
but many, alas, leave their machines wholly unguarded)
- choosing
ISPs and other service providers on the basis of professionalism,
rather than the lowest cost (professionals are less
likely to expose your information and more likely to
respond if you do have problems)
- exercising
caution about including personal mobile phone numbers
in email footers.
It
also includes basic precautions such as meeting in a public
space, such as a restaurant or cafe, if an online relationship
extends offline.
responses
There is no single set of rules for responding to stalking
and cyberstalking, both because individual circumstances
vary significantly (not all stalking is persistent, pathological
and associated with violence) and because legal regimes
(along with access to those regimes and the expertise/interest
of law enforcement personnel) vary. As previously noted,
the latter is a particular issue when stalking is taking
place across national boundaries.
What can be done when someone is being stalked online?
A fundamental response is for victims to not despair.
Some targets of stalking believe that they are powerless;
others believe that cyberstalking is either not an offence
or that it will not be taken seriously by police, courts
and service providers. As indicated earlier in this note,
those beliefs are incorrect. Australian law for example
recognises electronic stalking, including harassment via
SMS and email.
Victims can take a range of action, depending on their
circumstances. Such responses include -
- screening
voice calls, SMS, chat and email. Filter email for example;
if messages come from a particular address, send those
messages into a folder that you (or your geek) can provide
to police but that you do not need to look at yourself.
If you are bothered by someone in an online forum you
can often block communications from them, even become
invisible to them.
- if
necessary, throwing away your current email address
(particularly if it is a disposable webmail
address in a service such as Hotmail) and start
a new one, one that is only available to trusted friends/associates
and that is not published on the web.
- checking
that the victim has not let the stalker into a personal
computer. Make sure that virus protection is up to date;
change the passwords. This is the same as keeping your
front door locked or changing the locks. Some people
have managed the experience by buying a new machine
or wiping and reinstalling the software on an existing
machine, just to be sure.
- consider
throwing away an existing SecondLife, MySpace or FaceBook
profile: "changing address, hair colour, age and
even gender online" is usually easier than moving
house offline.
- similarly
creating a new presence in chat rooms and other online
fora, ideally using
different identity information (a different age, location,
preferences) so that your reappearance cannot be readily
detected. Request trusted friends/associates not to
provide those details to anyone else.
- traditional
actions such as using a male friend to record the instructions
on a female victim's answering machine.
Victims
are typically advised to deny the cyberstalker the gratification
of knowing that the target distressed. As with offline
stalking, it is useful to resist the temptation to 'feed
the beast': do not reply, do not 'legitimate' the harassment
or 'validate' the cyberstalker's existence.
That non-response does not mean destruction of
information that could be useful in identification and
prosecution of an offender. It is important to remember
that electronic messages such as SMS often provide traces
that can be followed by investigators and used in court.
If you do get nasty messages, do not delete them: they
are evidence which might be used against the stalker.
Store the email, log the chat, save the SMS.
Businesses such as ISPs and fora operators dislike trouble,
whether because it is bad for their marketing, because
they fear financial penalties imposed by courts and regulators
or because immunity fades in some jurisdictions when there
is an egregious lack of response to complaints.
Some will make a genuine effort to assist victims to identify
oppressors or to expunge offensive comments (defamatory
and threatening material in fora, blogs and personal sites)
and ban the person who made those comments. Others, through
ignorance of the law (or good manners) and managerial
ineptitude, will take longer to respond when they receive
a request to deal with improper material.
Victims should accordingly be persistent, on occasion
insisting on talking to a manager rather than the (often
underpaid and naive) people manning a call centre or the
front counter.
That persistence is useful in dealing with
police: some are net-savvy, others are not. Contact by
the author of this site with victims of cyberstalking
suggests that if the person (or an associate) is persistent
the victim will eventually find someone who has dealt
with cyberstalking, takes it seriously and can offer advice
about the particular problems.
Realism is also important. Dealing with cyberstalking
is like dealing with offline stalking: it requires energy,
commitment, even bravery. A stalker will not necessarily
disappear; some are hard to identify (although it is clear
that claims of undetectability
are often false).
::
|
|
