Abusers are increasingly using wearable technology like smartwatches and rings to stalk, harass, and coerce survivors, a leading domestic abuse charity has warned.
New data released by Refuge shows a 62 per cent rise in referrals to its technology-facilitated abuse and economic empowerment team in 2025 to 829, up from 512 in 2024.
The charity said the rise is being driven by the “increasing accessibility” and “reach” of wearable technology that allows abusers to “stalk, surveil and control survivors” even from a distance.
Emma Pickering, who is head of the tech abuse team at Refuge, told The Independent she believes technology companies need to do more to safeguard their products, adding it is “unacceptable” for the safety of women and children to be an “afterthought”.
“Wearable technology is cheaper to purchase than ever before,” she said. “It’s integrated into all of our lives and we can’t really avoid it even if we want to.”
Most of the reports the charity receives involve wearable health technology like smartwatches and rings, but she said abusers are also using smart locks, heating technology, and even fertility trackers to manipulate and control victims.
She said perpetrators of abuse are “quickly learning” they have “new tools at their disposal”.
“Years ago, a perpetrator needed to physically be in the house to change the heating and turn the lights on and off,” she explained. “Now you don’t even need to be in the same country and you can use smart locks to trap someone in or outside a property. You don’t have to physically be anywhere near the person that you’re targeting.”
According to Refuge’s data, 24 per cent of their tech-related referrals are from people under the age of 30. Ms Pickering said she believes that while young people are generally considered more “tech savvy” than older people, their status as digital natives means it is “natural to them” to have it integrated into their lives.
“Older people can do without technology in a way that a younger person just can’t, and that’s probably why the data looks the way it does,” she explained.
She said companies are getting “excited” by the possibilities presented by new technology, but are failing to consider how products can be manipulated by abusers.
“As things progress, we have to remember that the data it collects is going to have to sit somewhere,” she told The Independent. “We have to think – who can access it? Can someone hack into it? Can someone manipulate it, and what are we doing to think of that in an intimate partner abuse context?”
One survivor who Refuge worked with, Mina, said she was left “deeply shocked” and “frightened” after realising she was being stalked through cloud accounts linked to her smartwatch.
“I felt suddenly exposed and unsafe, knowing that my location was being tracked without my consent,” she said. “It created a constant sense of paranoia; I couldn’t relax, sleep properly, or feel settled anywhere because I knew my movements weren’t private.”
Her abuser used the data to post documents to her and confirm her exact location to the police, which Mina described as “terrifying”.
“It reinforced the feeling that there was nowhere I could go without being watched,” she added.
It comes after reports women are being filmed without their consent using smart glasses. Experts told The Independent women experience “multifold” harms from this behaviour, including the risk of being victims of deepfakes, having to “guard” their privacy in public spaces, and becoming subject to discussions in comment spaces with a “global” reach.
A government spokesperson said: “Tackling violence against women and girls in all its forms, including when it takes place online or is facilitated by technology, is a top priority for this government.
“Our new VAWG strategy sets out how the full power of the state will be deployed online and offline. We are working with Ofcom to set out how online platforms tackle the disproportionate abuse women and girls face online.”
