Survivors of intimate partner violence increasingly report that abusers install spyware on devices to track their location, monitor communications, and cause emotional and physical harm. To date there has been only cursory investigation into the spyware used in such intimate partner surveillance (IPS). We provide the first in-depth study of the IPS spyware ecosystem. We design, implement, and evaluate a measurement pipeline that combines web and app store crawling with machine learning to find and label apps that are potentially dangerous in IPS contexts. Ultimately we identify several hundred such IPS-relevant apps.While we find dozens of overt spyware tools, the majority are "dual-use" apps -they have a legitimate purpose (e.g., child safety or anti-theft), but are easily and effectively repurposed for spying on a partner. We document that a wealth of online resources are available to educate abusers about exploiting apps for IPS. We also show how some dual-use app developers are encouraging their use in IPS via advertisements, blogs, and customer support services. We analyze existing anti-virus and anti-spyware tools, which universally fail to identify dual-use apps as a threat.

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Digital technologies, including mobile devices, cloud computing services, and social networks, play a nuanced role in intimate partner violence (IPV) settings, including domestic abuse, stalking, and surveillance of victims by abusive partners. However, the interactions among victims of IPV, abusers, law enforcement, counselors, and others --- and the roles that digital technologies play in these interactions --- are poorly understood. We present a qualitative study that analyzes the role of digital technologies in the IPV ecosystem in New York City. Findings from semi-structured interviews with 40 IPV professionals and nine focus groups with 32 survivors of IPV reveal a complex set of socio-technical challenges that stem from the intimate nature of the relationships involved and the complexities of managing shared social circles. Both IPV professionals and survivors feel that they do not possess adequate expertise to be able to identify or cope with technology-enabled IPV, and there are currently insufficient best practices to help them deal with abuse via technology. We also reveal a number of tensions and trade-offs in negotiating technology's role in social support and legal procedures. Taken together, our findings contribute a nuanced understanding of technology's role in the IPV ecosystem and yield recommendations for HCI and technology experts interested in aiding victims of abuse.

BackgroundAlthough mobile health (mHealth) interventions can help improve outcomes among patients with chronic lower back pain (CLBP), many available mHealth apps offer content that is not evidence based. Limbr was designed to enhance self-management of CLBP by packaging self-directed rehabilitation tutorial videos, visual self-report tools, remote health coach support, and activity tracking into a suite of mobile phone apps, including Your Activities of Daily Living, an image-based tool for quantifying pain-related disability.ObjectiveThe aim is to (1) describe patient engagement with the Limbr program, (2) describe patient-perceived utility of the Limbr program, and (3) assess the validity of the Your Activities of Daily Living module for quantifying functional status among patients with CLBP.MethodsThis was a single-arm trial utilizing a convenience sample of 93 adult patients with discogenic back pain who visited a single physiatrist from January 2016 to February 2017. Eligible patients were enrolled in 3-month physical therapy program and received the Limbr mobile phone app suite for iOS or Android. The program included three daily visual self-reports to assess pain, activity level, and medication/coping mechanisms; rehabilitation video tutorials; passive activity-level measurement; and chat-based health coaching. Patient characteristics, patient engagement, and perceived utility were analyzed descriptively. Associations between participant characteristics and program interaction were analyzed using multiple linear regression. Associations between Your Activities of Daily Living and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) assessments were examined using Pearson correlation and hierarchical linear modeling.ResultsA total of 93 participants were enrolled; of these, 35 (38%) completed the program (age: mean 46, SD 16 years; female: 22/35, 63%). More than half of completers finished assessments at least every 3 days and 70% (19/27) used the rehabilitation component at least once a week. Among respondents to a Web-based feedback survey, 76% (16/21) found the daily notifications helped them remember to complete their exercises, 81% (17/21) found the system easy to use, and 62% (13/21) rated their overall experience good or excellent. Baseline Your Activities of Daily Living score was a significant predictor of baseline ODI score, with ODI increasing by 0.30 units for every 1-unit increase in Your Activities of Daily Living (P<.001). Similarly, hierarchical linear modeling analysis indicated that Your Activities of Daily Living daily assessment scores were significant predictors of ODI scores over the course of the study (P=.01).ConclusionsEngagement among participants who completed the Limbr program was high, and program utility was rated positively by most respondents. Your Activities of Daily Living was significantly associated with ODI scores, supporting the validity of this novel tool. Future studies should assess the effect of Limbr on clinical outcomes, evaluate its use among a wider patient sample, and explore stra...

Intimate partner abusers use technology to track, monitor, harass, and otherwise harm their victims, and prior work reports that victims have few resources for obtaining help with such attacks. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of data from a field study of an approach to helping survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) with technology abuse. In this approach, called clinical computer security, a trained technologist performs a face-to-face consultation with an IPV survivor to help them understand and navigate technology issues. Findings from consultations with 31 survivors, as well as IPV professionals working on their behalf, uncovered a range of digital security and privacy vulnerabilities exacerbated by the nuanced social context of such abuse. In this paper we explore survivor experiences with, and reactions to, the consultations, discussing (1) the ways in which survivors present their tech concerns, (2) the cooperative work required to guide survivors towards understanding probable causes of tech insecurity, (3) survivors' reactions to the consultations, particularly when security vulnerabilities or spyware are discovered, and (4) the role we play as consultants and interventionists in the complex socio-technical systems involved in mitigating IPV. We conclude by discussing some of the broad ethical and sustainability challenges raised by our work, and provide design opportunities for tech platforms to better support survivors of IPV.