This blog was written by Emily Johnstone, a doctoral researcher at the University investigating how smart home devices can be used to facilitate abuse, and how responses can be strengthened to help individuals navigate and mitigate these harms.
Smart home devices are designed to make life easier: lights you can switch on with your voice, a camera that tells you who’s at the door, or heating you can adjust from your phone. Yet in the wrong hands, the same technology can become a tool for surveillance and control.
This technology is expanding rapidly, with 40.6 billion devices expected to be in use by 2034. Many students and staff now live in homes or shared accommodation where devices like smart speakers, video doorbells, or app-controlled heating systems are common. Understanding the potential for misuse, and strengthening responses to this form of abuse, are essential for safeguarding our community.
The University’s #NeverOK campaign reinforces our shared commitment: abusive behaviour, online or offline, is never acceptable.
What is technology-facilitated abuse?
Technology-facilitated abuse (TFA) is the use of digital tools, apps, online platforms, or devices to harm, control, or intimidate someone. In domestic abuse contexts, this can involve a partner, ex partner or family member using devices to:
- Monitor or track movements
- Send constant or unwanted messages
- Control access to accounts, data, or even the home.
TFA often intertwines with other forms of abuse, including psychological, financial, or physical harm. The UK now classifies TFA as a national threat, recognising the scale and severity of the issue.
How can smart home devices be misused?
Smart home devices collect data, track activity, and allow people to control settings remotely. These features can be exploited as tactics of abuse, such as:
- Watching or recording someone without consent
- Locking or unlocking doors, or controlling who can enter the home
- Manipulating heating, lighting, or appliances to cause distress
- Tracking daily routines through location data or activity logs
- Listening in on conversations from afar
- Using children’s devices to extend monitoring
These behaviours mirror the wider patterns of power and control seen in domestic abuse. Sometimes controlling behaviour is disguised as caring or protective, but monitoring someone without their consent is abuse, not affection.
What does research show?
Ongoing research at the University, examining online forums and perspectives of frontline support services, shows how this abuse is experienced, enacted, and navigated in practice:
- The misuse of smart home devices can be difficult to recognise
Many devices are small or built into everyday objects, making them hard to spot. Even visible devices, such as smart cameras or heating systems, can seem harmless. As unexpected changes can be attributed to glitches or coincidences, individuals may also begin to doubt their own observations.
- A safety plan is crucial
Changing passwords and removing devices can alert a perpetrator and escalate abuse. Having a safety plan before making changes can reduce these risks.
- Online spaces can normalise harmful behaviour
Analysis of public online forums reveals some worrying trends:
- Exchange of tactics for monitoring or tracking partners
- Posts that minimise and justify controlling behaviours in romantic relationships
- Hostile or misogynistic comments, including entitlement to a partner’s location and messages
These online spaces can reinforce harmful norms about victim blaming and downplay the seriousness of coercive control.
If something doesn’t feel right
Only take steps that feel safe. If possible, get advice before making any changes:
- Check what's connected: Make a list of devices and who has access to them.
- Keep a record: If it’s safe, log any unusual activity.
- Review security: Update passwords, check permissions, and turn off unnecessary location sharing.
- Use a safe device: A friend’s phone, library computer, or new email account can help to protect your privacy.
- Review shared accounts: These may be linked to apps or devices without you realising.
Support at the University of Bath
For students
Student Support Advisers can help. Visit the Roper Centre (4 West) or complete the online form. They may refer you to the Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse Response Service (SVDARS), who offer specialist support, safety advice, and guidance on reporting.
Students and staff can also report an incident or access confidential advice through the Support and Report tool.
For staff
Staff can speak to their HR Advisor for support.
Health Assured also offers free, confidential counselling and wellbeing advice to staff members.
Specialist external support
- 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline: 0808 2000 247
- Refuge’s Home Tech Tool – practical guidance on securing devices
- The Cyber Helpline – support with monitoring, hacking, or stalking concerns
As the number of smart home devices increases, so too must our understanding of how they can be misused. What matters most is that anyone experiencing or affected by abuse knows that support is available, and that they are not alone.
The University is committed to responding to this form of harm, raising awareness, and ensuring that abuse is always recognised for what it is: #NeverOK.
Respond
