I THOUGHT I WAS IN THE PERFECT RELATIONSHIP — UNTIL I REALIZED HE WAS SPYING ON ME

HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED TO LIANNE

I met my partner in a London club, and Within six months we were engaged. it felt like a fairytale.

But one day, when I went to attach a file to an email using our shared computer, my perfect relationship came crashing down.

I found a file containing all of my email addresses with passwords. At first I was in complete shock, then disbelief, and then anger.

But there were warning signs.

Before emailgate, I had become concerned that my partner seemed to know things that I hadn’t disclosed to him — my whereabouts and my plans. he Claimed to have seen what I had typed into my car’s GPS.

But the real explanation turned out to be much more troubling.

He had purchased stalkerware technology, and downloaded it to my phone. In some ways I felt relieved to find out what was going on, but it also made me feel trapped and scared.

But what is stalkerware?

Stalkerware is any type of technology that allows someone to keep tabs on an individual.

This could be anything from tracking locations to key strokes on a computer.

Stalkers don’t even have to use these specific technologies to watch someone

“They can also keep tabs in ways that don’t involve any sort of add-on technology, such as turning on location sharing on a mobile device," explains expert Michelle Drouin.

In 2014 alone, UK support charity Refuge reported that they were contacted by nearly 1,000 domestic abuse victims whose partners had exploited technology in order to control and stalk them.

“My ex-partner would always be monitoring my phone and laptop – the slightest discovery would send him into a rage,” says Emily*

"He once went to a house address that he didn’t recognize and banged on the door demanding to know how they knew me.”

“The idea of stalkerware terrifies me — if it had been widely accessible then, he definitely would have used it, not just to keep track of where I was and what I was doing but to find excuses to get angry and violent with me.”

Particularly Scary?

Stalkerware apps can be installed without the device owner’s knowledge.

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