A joint cell phone plan is convenient for families to stay connected. It prevents customers from switching quickly to another carrier. Family phone plans can be dangerous for survivors of intimate partner violence. Account holders, often abusive partners, have access to calls, location data, and even personal information about survivors.
They can use this information to harass, intimidate, and carry out violence. Unlike stalkerware apps that can be deleted, survivors can’t permanently abandon their phones and numbers, which may be their primary connection.
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly one in four women and almost one in ten men have experienced intimate partner violence. The problem only worsened during the pandemic, with tens of millions isolated at home.
Domestic violence reports in New York increased 30 percent during the outbreak in April 2020. Since many survivors cannot get help in person, they rely on their phones. Sarah St.Vincent, the director of Cornell Tech’s Clinic to End Tech Abuse, said that lifeline could also pose a severe danger. In this context, she believes family plans are snakes in the grass.
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Getting off an abuser’s phone plan is harder than it should be. The following options are available if your phone provider won’t make exceptions. Document the stalking, tracking, accessing private information, threats to cut off your phone, accessing private photos, and other abuse through cell phones.
As a backup identification method, phone numbers are used by email providers, social media companies, and banks. Getting survivors off the family phone plan wouldn’t solve everything. Many abusers use technology to stalk and harass their victims, even if they can’t keep their numbers. Americans trying to escape their abusers would have one less hurdle to clear.