A seemingly innocent tracking app on *Rose's phone was the secret weapon her abuser used to keep her in a constant state of fear.

"I had an app so he could follow me everywhere I went," she says.

"So he knew every movement I did. I wasn't allowed to leave the home till a certain time, and he made sure I had to be back at a certain time."

The constant monitoring compounded the sexual and physical abuse he inflicted at home.

"I'd get numerous texts every day. And if I didn't answer them within a certain amount of time then I'd get an abusive text, I get phone calls.

"It was constant. What it's done to me… I live with fight or flight every single day."

Even after serving time for his abuse, Rose's ex tracked her down via Instagram.

"My daughter, who first received the first message, came out of her bed screaming… absolutely screaming… shaking."

Rose's ex has threatened to kill her multiple times, and he is now out of jail.

She's found a new sense of self and safety with the help of a good psychologist, a caring partner and a watch that, with the press of a button, connects secretly to a monitoring company if she is in danger.

"It's just given me a sense of power back," she says.

"Because even if he came up and he attacked me again, I can goddamn tell you, I will press that button. And even if he killed me, they're going to know exactly who it is.

"He can't hurt me anymore. Because I'm going to press that damn watch and he's going to go to prison for the rest of his life and be tried.

"It's empowered me again."

Rose shouldn't have to wear a watch to be safe. But her remarkable story of survival shows technology's grim potential for misuse, as well as its promise of hope to victim-survivors of family violence.

Women asking for fire extinguishers for protection
The watch was provided by the company Protective Group as part of a project with Wayss, a support agency in Melbourne's outer suburbs.

Its chief executive Stephen Wilson recently travelled to Queensland, in the wake of a series of violent attacks on women, to see clients.

Just last month, the body of 27-year-old Kelly Wilkinson was found in her backyard with burns. Her former partner has been charged with her murder.

And although he was there to offer IT help, he was being asked for fire extinguishers.

"Every person felt that they were going to be next," he says.

Technology-facilitated abuse is overwhelmingly gendered — 96 per cent of perpetrators are male and 93 per cent of victims are female.

A recent national survey by women's services network WESNET found almost all women experiencing family violence suffered from technology abuse.

It's a term that covers everything from abusive texts and social media posts, to tracking of smartphones, to covert monitoring of a victim's movements.

And it's getting worse. 

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Since 2015, the survey found a 244.8 per cent increase in frontline workers reporting perpetrators' use of GPS tracking of victim-survivors, and a 183.2 per cent increase in the use of cameras.

The risk for Indigenous women more than doubled in that time.

Children are increasingly being drawn into the abuse.

"Children being given a phone or other device as a way to contact their father and monitor their mother's movements showed an increase of 346.6 per cent from 2015," the report found.

And that has harmed children's mental health in 67 per cent of cases, according to an eSafety Commissioner report.

'Let's disrupt that power'

Stephen Wilson says he wants the focus to be on stopping men's behaviour, rather than on what women do. (ABC News: Michael Barnett)

The Protective Group's Mr Wilson joined the police force at 16 in 1978, and says times have changed since he saw his first domestic violence incident at 17.

"You'd be driving in a divvy van with a sergeant and he'd say, mate, don't bother. We don't want to go that one, someone else will grab that job," he says.

"Because it was all too hard."

But the current level of fear has made an impression on him.

Mr Wilson says his company has helped about 12,000 women and children over a decade.

He says women should not have to modify their behaviour to counter the changing methods of their abusers.

"It should be about him stopping doing it," he says.

"And that's where we sort of step into that really early stage of how we can keep them safe. Let's disrupt that power. Let's take that power away from him and give it back to her." 

His company's audits check locks on doors, finds tracing or monitoring devices, and checks phones and computers for stalking tools.

He's found perpetrators who had videoed women while they slept at home.


Women who experience domestic violence are often also suffering technology abuse, experts said. (ABC News)

Mr Shaw says companies selling monitoring devices actively market their wares as means to control women.

"Doing the work I do… I often get targeted on social media by companies trying to sell me hidden cameras and hidden tracking devices," he says.

He says often the devices are pitched at finding out if partners are cheating.

"And I find that absolutely disgusting," he says.

Ultimately, Mr Wilson knows his services, while potentially life-saving, do not address the underlying problem.

"I can't make excuses for my gender," he says.

'We've seen people fit kill switches to cars'
Experts say the problem is getting worse.

But while tens of thousands of frontline family violence workers have been trained in the field, many women struggle to find the expertise they desperately need.


Julie Inman-Grant says there isn't enough technological help for women who need it. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant says while the bulk of tech abuse functions are readily available in smartphones, some perpetrators are getting more devious.

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"We've seen people fit kill switches to cars, so that a woman can't go beyond the school and back without her car stalling," she says. 

"We've seen people program smart TVs to leave menacing messages every time the TV is turned on.

"We've seen people remotely controlling heat or lighting, to either heat out their family or keep them in the dark."

She said there was varying levels of technical expertise among perpetrators, but there weren't enough services using people with technical knowledge to provide assistance.