SURVEILLANCEDigitally Watched without Consent: Spyware as a Tool of Coercive Control
Spyware, once primarily used by intelligence agencies and nation-states, has become a tool of intimate partner abuse, quietly deployed against people – mostly women – who have no idea they are being watched.
Spyware, once primarily used by intelligence agencies and nation-states, has become a tool of intimate partner abuse, quietly deployed against people – mostly women – who have no idea they are being watched.
In an age when our phones know our location and hold our most private conversations, a disturbing form of abuse has found a foothold worldwide. In April, news emerged that thousands of men had flocked to groups on the messaging app Telegram to buy commercial spyware designed to covertly monitor their partners. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has flagged technology-facilitated abuse as a concern, including use of spyware in coercive control and cyberstalking, warning the public of the tactic and providing support for frontline workers and survivors. But more can be done to address this systemic threat hiding inside Australia’s domestic violence crisis.
Spyware is malicious software that covertly monitors a device’s activity, collecting information without the user’s knowledge and sending the data to an unauthorised entity. Highly invasive spyware allows unlimited access with little or no trace, making it almost impossible for the user to know what data was taken.
Infection methods range from deceptive links to zero-click attacks, where a device can be compromised without any user interaction. Once spyware is installed, the software can be used to track a victim’s location; access conversations, even on end-to-end encrypted apps; read emails; and activate the infected device’s microphone to listen to nearby conversations. Capabilities once reserved for intelligence services have now been commercialised, making them available to anyone with an internet connection, means of digital payment and motive.
The spyware market is growing, enabling structural gendered abuse. Findings published in 2024 by research group Citizen Lab highlight how technology is used as a tool of control in transnational repression by authoritarian regimes including Iran, China, Russia and Azerbaijan. This resonates with ASPI’s 2022 findings on the Chinese Communist Party’s covert campaigns against Asian women whose work focuses on China.
The campaigns are aimed at journalists and human rights defenders, exploiting gendered stigma and using threats about bodies and sexuality to shame, intimidate and silence targets.
Data harvested through spyware is weaponised to enable blackmail; public exposure of personal information, also known as ‘doxxing’; cyber-stalking; and harassment and intimidation. This effect is compounded when attacks target minorities who already face discrimination. The psychological effect can lead targets to withdraw from public life and self-censor.
