How survivors stay safe on the phone

THE PHONE

• First, let’s talk about getting a new “dumb” phone, i.e. not a “smartphone”.
• First, you’re looking for a good deal: don’t forget to look at Skype or Pingo.com. Verizon and other phone carriers may donate air time for survivors
• You want it digital because it’s harder to intercept.
• You want to password-protect the account, to ensure that the abuser can’t just call in to customer service and get your data, even if he has your name and social.
• You want an unlisted number.
• You want the bill sent to an address which the abuser doesn’t know.
• Get Caller ID, call trace *57, and get the operator to help if call blocking prevents your call from getting through.
• Make sure the phone doesn’t have GPS tracking or locator services like FamilyMap.
• Keep the phone charged, handy, and hidden. If your battery is low, dial *3370# and you can use the emergency battery reserve.
• Your answering system should give away your number only, not your name, and it should have a male voice ideally (there’s free software that does this).
• Screen calls; if the abuser calls, tape and log it, and photograph the Caller ID.
• Be safe. Make sure you have a safe place to use the phone. If the abuser finds the phone, not only can he throw a fit, he can also load it with Flexispy monitoring and hear your calls.
• When you're calling someone potentially dangerous (the local women's center, a lawyer), use *67 so they can't see your number and call you back without thinking.
• If you’re still living with the abuser, it is dangerous to load your home phone with numbers related to your escape, particularly if the number-label in the phone says something obvious like “women’s shelter” or something.
• If 911 doesn't work, dial 112.
• 800-FREE-411 calls Information for free.
• Keep important numbers handy (memorized if you can, or stashed in your email): the local shelter, the domestic violence hotline, the protetive-order registry, your job, your case worker, the DA, the lawyer, the court; the National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)
• Other options: borrow a friend’s phone, get a phone card (and keep it with you), get a pay-as-you-go phone, know where the local payphones are (if they exist anymore).
•  Also: turn off cordless phones and baby monitors.  

THE SMART PHONE

Most of the rules above also apply to smart phones. A smart phone is a cool tool, but it’s dangerous too. You must protect access to a smartphone just like a computer, and use the PIN number; if you don’t, an abuser can get into your computer activity, hack into your phone, load spyware like Flexispy (especially on Google/Androids), etc. Even with a PIN, a good hacker can try to bust your code.

GPS is a big problem for smartphones: both the Apple phones and the Google/Android phones were discovered to be storing “geolocational” data, which means that you – or the abuser – can look into the internal files and track where you’ve been, even when you weren’t actually using the phone. When you’re buying the phone, ask the service guy, not the sales guy, how the “geo” stuff works, and how to turn it off. Apple phones can encrypt the data via iTunes (do Options and Encrypt iPhone Backup), or you can “jailbreak” the phone and download “Untrackerd” (but that invalidates the warranty and opens you up to spyware and malware). Google phones can be fixed by going into menu / settings / loc and loc services. And of course the manufacturers are constantly changing all this. 

Another reason to avoid smartphones: it was just revealed that most smartphones contain software which monitors every keystroke you make – information which an abuser could potentially access, if he can get to your phone. Technical experts are still arguing how serious this danger is. But “dumb” phones don’t have this problem.