About us

Refuge’s specialist tech team was created in 2017 in response to overwhelming reports of technology-facilitated abuse from women accessing our frontline services. We’re currently supporting around 1,594 women every day who are being tracked, monitored and harassed by abusers using modern technology as a weapon of control and coercion. We keep women safe from technology-facilitated abuse and also empower survivors so they can use tech safely and take back control of their lives. Refuge’s expert tech team carries out risk assessments and creates customised safety plans for victims of technology-facilitated abuse and their children.

This includes:

• Keeping women safe from tech threats and supporting them to secure their devices and accounts.
• Ensuring location privacy and preventing online abuse through social media and messaging platforms.
• Checking for any unusual activity on women’s and children’s devices or accounts, ensuring they are reset and secured.
• Advocating on survivors’ behalf with social media companies to take down abusive content, and with police.
• We can help the victim create ‘safe’ contact methods– so she’s not alerting the perpetrator to anything suspicious and she is safeguarding herself.
• We can help women to collect tech evidence if they are taking their perpetrator to court.