“I felt observed, as if someone was following me all the time. “After having this strange feeling in the bottom of her stomach for months, and while she saw her ex-husband popping up everywhere, Anne finally found a tracking device that had been placed under her vehicle without her knowledge. Using technology to track and monitor an ex-spouse? Shelters for abused women see such cases repeatedly, and new, tiny, inexpensive gadgets on the market are likely to multiply the possibilities.
“It’s a constant fear,” said Anne, whom we identify by a fictitious first name for security reasons.
She left her husband several months ago, but he does not accept the breakup. During their relationship, “he wanted to have total control”. She explains that she couldn’t talk to anyone, that she had to inform him of her whereabouts at all times, and that he demanded to drive her to his dinner parties with friends to check who was there. He accused her of having sex with other men, reports the woman in an interview with The duty.
He’s always been controlling since the breakup.
“I was going to take a walk and he was coming. I went to a meeting outside of my workplace and there he was. Sometimes he arrived in places at the same time as me. »
Under the weight of growing concern and threats from her ex-husband, Anne went to a Montreal police station. A policewoman on the spot guided her to check if a tracking beacon had been installed in her vehicle.
“That’s where I found him. A black rectangular object, a little bigger than a cell phone. Magnetized, it held in place under the car. She doesn’t know how long the beacon was there.
She made a complaint to the police for the device, but also for her other behaviors that she considered threatening. The man was charged with criminal harassment and is now awaiting trial. None of the facts alleged against him have yet been proven. On the other hand, a ban on approaching Anne was imposed on him.
“The tracker, as soon as you move, it sends a signal. Her phone receives a notification, says Anne. He knows when the car is moving, and how long I was staying in one place. He knew everything. »
A widespread phenomenon
“I see this all the time,” dropped without hesitation Manon Monastesse, general manager of the Federation of Women’s Shelters (FMHF).
The use of these devices, including those using cell phones, is frequent, to the point where emergency shelters and shelters have had to develop a procedure to systematically explain to women what to do, even before go there, to avoid being followed.
“This has been a major issue for several years, and a daily concern,” exclaimed Ms.me Monastery.
And the consequences can be serious. A few times, a shelter had to call the police: a man had geolocated his ex-spouse and at the same time, the shelter. However, it is necessary at all costs to avoid that the addresses of these houses are known, says Mme Monastery, so as not to endanger all those who take refuge there.
Louise Riendeau, co-responsible for political files for the Regrouping of houses for women victims of conjugal violence, is not surprised by Anne’s story either.
She has seen many situations where spouses have used “all the panoply of modern technologies” to continue to exercise control, “after the breakup, and also during”. She insists: “We are not talking about one or two cases, but many cases. Sometimes it’s location-based apps that are subtly downloaded to the phone. But she’s also seen this: cell phones and tablets given to the children, which allow the mother’s whereabouts to be monitored when they’re with her.
To the point where the two managers saw fit to give training to the workers to avoid the possibility of tracking. The Sûreté du Québec has created with their help a document full of advice, entitled: “Electronic devices can indicate in real time where you are…” Victims of violence are advised, among other things, to deactivate the geolocation function on mobile devices as well as social media.
“Technologies are changing and becoming more refined,” notes Ms.me Riendeau. You have to update yourself all the time, and it becomes more difficult to help women. »
The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) is aware of the phenomenon and has seen cases, without however keeping statistics on the subject. The offense is classified under “criminal harassment”. The Laval and Longueuil police forces do not have any data on this issue either.
In court
Geolocation devices are getting smaller and smaller, and several companies are selling them. This is particularly the case with the Air Tag from Apple, which is barely larger than a 25 cent coin. The use of this small circular object, which is placed in suitcases or purses to find them if they are lost, has been diverted by some.
Two women even filed a class action lawsuit in the United States against Apple in December. One claims to have found an AirTag device in the wheel of her car and the other in her child’s backpack, after an acrimonious divorce. They allege that the device was used by their ex-spouses to track them. Saying they fear for their safety, they criticize the company for not having put in place sufficient mechanisms to prevent harassers from misusing it.
Last June, in Indiana, a woman was arrested for the murder of her ex-boyfriend. It is alleged that she found him in a bar thanks to an AirTag. She then allegedly ran into him with her car, driving over his body a few times, reported the washington post. None of these allegations have yet been proven in court, but they illustrate the dangers already reported by groups that help victims of violence.
At $40 a piece, the device is within reach of many people.