Internet & Computer Safety

If you are in danger, please

• Call 911,
• Call your local hotline, 1-866-341-7009, or
• Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at: 1-800-799-SAFE.

Email is not a safe or confidential way to talk to someone about the danger or abuse in your life, please call us instead.

• There are hundreds of ways that computers record everything you do on the computer and on the Internet.
• If you are in danger, please try to use a safer computer that someone abusive does not have direct access, or even remote (hacking) access to.
• It might be safer to use a computer in a public library, at a community technology center (CTC) www.ctcnet.org (national directory), at a trusted friend’s house, or an Internet Café.
• If you think your activities are being monitored, they probably are. Abusive people are often controlling and want to know your every move. You don’t need to be a computer programmer or have special skills to monitor someone’s computer activities – anyone can do it and there are many ways to monitor.
• Computers can provide a lot of information about what you look at on the Internet, the emails you send, and other activities. It is not possible to delete or clear all computer “footprints”.
• If you think you may be monitored on your home computer, you might consider no home Internet use or "safer" Internet surfing. Example: If you are planning to flee to California, don't look at classified ads for jobs and apartments, bus tickets, etc for California on a home computer or any computer an abuser has physical or remote access to. Use a safer computer to research an escape plan.

Traditional “corded” phones are more private than cell phones or cordless phones.