On 6 June 2022, Apple announced a new safety feature at its annual WWDC event that will significantly help victim-survivors of domestic abuse using iPhones and other connected devices.
This new feature will help Apple users quickly secure their devices, making it a very helpful resource for victim-survivors of domestic abuse who are concerned that their abuser has access to their devices and accounts.
How does it work?
Safety Check gives Apple user’s the options to:
- Review who has access to what information on their devices and customise settings to limit this access.
- Do a quick safety emergency reset to stop all access other users may have to track their location, messages, apps, or anything else.
Apple worked with WESNET (Women’s Specialist Network), the National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC), and our sister organisation in the USA, the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) to ensure their design had a domestic violence lens.
We are very pleased and grateful to see that Apple has incorporated the feedback provided in the development of the Safety Check feature and created a tool that empowers victim-survivors by giving them the control to increase their privacy and safety. We hope this is a trailblazer example for future technology organisations to implement expert feedback on domestic violence and help ensure victim-survivors safety.
You can learn more about the Safety Check feature here.
We also recommend you check our post about Apple’s new edit and unending features for iOs16.
For more information about technology abuse visit our Technology Safety and Privacy Toolkit.
Get Social