Stalking and Technology-Facilitated Abuse Log

What is a stalking and technology-facilitated abuse log?

Stalking and technology-facilitated abuse is when a perpetrator uses technology as a tool to monitor and harm someone. This can include things like tracking location, sending harassing texts, and threatening to share abusive images. Some of the common technologies that are used as tools of abuse are devices and accounts.

This handout has a log to write down important details about the abuse. Two logs are provided, in a long and short form, so survivors can choose the one that works best for their situation.

Why would a survivor keep a stalking and tech-facilitated abuse log?

  • To capture evidence at the time the abuse occurs, making it more reliable in court
  • To support evidence captured ‘in real life’
  • To help see patterns and escalations of abuse for safety planning purposes
  • To provide evidence for police and assist with their investigations
  • To give support workers insight into the risks a survivor faces so that they can assist further
  • To support survivors to take back control and be proactive
  • To validate survivor experiences. This can help if an abuser minimises, denies, or gaslights the person they are abusing. Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse where an abuser pretends the abuse did not occur and may blame a victim for ‘going crazy’.
  • To remind a survivor about an abusive person’s behaviour. Sometimes memories of abuse can be blurred over A log might assist with making statements for court or by helping a survivor decide what to do if an abuser is trying to re-establish a relationship.

Staying safe while logging abuse

Think about where you can store the logs safely so that an abuser will not find them. This may be in a locked desk at work, with your support worker or with a trusted friend. Trust yourself. You know your situation best.

If you decide to provide your logs to police or other services, they may ask for more details about the person who is abusing you. These items may include information about the abuser’s technology, such as their:

  • internet and phone provider and account information,
  • devices, such as phones, computers, tablets, cameras, drones, external hard drives, USBs, children’s devices, etc.,
  • accounts or apps that have been used in the abuse such as social media or banking accounts,
  • email addresses, phone numbers, cloud storage accounts, usernames, avatars, pseudonyms, online identities, etc., and
  • any other information that relates to their technology, such as passwords, online associates, tracking devices, ISP addresses, identity theft or fraud, etc.

Note: Although the information by the dot points above may be valuable to collect if safe to do so, these details are not included in this stalking log as it may not apply in all situations or could affect safety.  Consider how the information could be documented creatively and safely in your situation. 

Download this page in a handout version (in PDF)

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We update our materials frequently. Please visit techsafety.org.au/resources for the latest version of this and other materials.