March 7, 2018 Domestic Violence and Disabilities 0 Comments

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Blog contributor Kaylen is a social worker and the assistant program director at Barrier Free Living’s Secret Garden program. She has been with the agency for over 5 years.

During a recent Special Topics workshop held at the Secret Garden, Jerome Greco, an attorney from the Digital Forensics Unit at the Legal Aid Society presented on suggestions for preventing cyberstalking.

Some of his suggestions included:

  • If possible, set up two factor authentication on your accounts. Many email accounts, social media accounts, online shopping (Amazon/Paypal) and banking platforms allow for two factor authentication.
  • Be aware of how you’re using location services. Don’t just be wary of tagging your location on social media, but also of others commenting where you are, or posting pictures near familiar landmarks. One way to combat this is to set your social media account settings so that you have to approve every post that shows up on your timeline.
  • If you receive an email and don’t know it is from, don’t open the email. It’s possible for people to include trackers in emails that can report much of your information, including location to the person who sent it
  • Beware of malware/spyware which can be installed on your computer, tablet, or phone. Uninstall strange or unknown programs/apps, use virus/malware software, and consider getting rid of the device altogether if you suspect it is being used to monitor you.
  • Online databases such as Spokeo and BeenVerified compile public information such as addresses and phone numbers and often times are free to access. Remove your information from these sites by googling the website name plus the word removal.

The Secret Garden team also offers a variety of workshops and trainings from Crisis Intervention & Domestic Violence to Sexual and Domestic Violence in the Deaf CommunityView the full DV workshops and training list (PDF). View a brief film about our workshops here.  Learn more about our work with survivors with disabilities here. Our team can tailor our presentations based on your needs. We provide workshops to people from all areas including service providers, community groups, students and clients/consumers. To find out more about booking a workshop please email [email protected]. We look forward to sharing our expertise with you.

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