Carmi Levy

And so the worry here is that smart devices are becoming far more pervasive.

So, you know, your old doorbell dies, you put on a ring doorbell, your old thermostat dies, of course you're getting a smart thermostat.

And so as these things are connectable,

They connect to the cloud, they use apps to remotely set settings.

It allows a stalker, it allows an abusive member of an intimate relationship to use this technology against the other, against the victim.

And so, you know, it used to be you would, you know, crank up the, you know, the heat in the house and make them uncomfortable.

Now it's, well, with a smart lock, you can actually lock a victim into a home.

against their will.

You can use location sharing on a smartwatch or a smartphone or a smart ring to know where your victim is and target them there.

And these kinds of abuses, technologically enabled, you might think, well, why don't they just take the smartwatch off?

Well, when you're being victimized in an intimate partner relationship, you may not have the option to do so.

You may not know someone is using that watch or ring to track you.

That's precisely it.

And so you may not always, in some cases it's on different accounts or it's on common accounts, the notifications aren't turned on.

So there are all sorts of ways for this to be, you know, my wife and I use location sharing.

I'm a cyclist and things can happen to me.

So obviously she's aware of my location, but that is consensual.

That's, you know, I trust her, she trusts me.

And, you know, we're certainly not in an abusive relationship, however you can imagine that.

how that technology in the context of an abusive relationship could be used in all sorts of frightening ways.