A crosscutting strategy for detecting and removing stalkerware in intimate relationships

Gender-based violence and online abuse are closely related. In Europe, one in ten women have experienced online violence since the age of fifteen and 20% of young women experience sexual harassment online. 70% of women who were cyberstalked are also survivors of physical and/or sexual violence by their partner or former partner. Likewise, 71% of domestic abusers monitor women’s computer activities while 54% track survivors’ cell phones with stalking software. The increase of stalkerware usage on users’ mobile devices at a global level is unrestrained with the most affected European countries being Germany, Italy, and France.

Cyber abuse and stalkerware represent increasingly widespread, often hidden, forms of gender-based violence. Sexual harassment and mysoginistic bullying, cyber stalking, revenge porn and secretly installing stalkerware apps on phones. All of this is part of the abuse perpetrated online against both women and girls.

DeStalk aimed to increase capability of European local governments, gaining innovative instruments on how to develop an effective campaign, and extend the reach of professionals, with a huge multiplier effect beyond its end.

The DeStalk project also raised awareness of general public on these new and widespread forms of violence, and call strategic actors to action.