In the spring of 2022, a 24-year-old named Johanne contacted Norwegian police about events that had begun a decade earlier—when she was just 14. Johanne said she was on Omegle, an app that allows users to chat with strangers, when she began speaking with an adult named John, an American with whom she became romantically entangled. John sent the young teenager gifts; she sent him nudes. According to Johanne’s account, relayed in a search warrant filed by U.S. authorities, the relationship became more exploitative over time: John took control of her Facebook and Apple accounts and began using the latter’s Find My iPhone app to track her whereabouts. In 2014, John showed up unannounced to a restaurant where Johanne was eating with a friend, the alleged victim said. He took her to a hotel, where, according to the warrant, he sexually abused her and filmed it on his phone.
After Johanne’s 2022 police interview, international crime-fighting agency Interpol alerted U.S. authorities. Cops caught up with John in Shawsville, Virginia, this past April. But they hit a dead end when he refused to allow them to search his iPhone 14 and MacBook Pro. When the FBI got a warrant to force them open with either his fingerprint or face, neither device unlocked, though it was unclear why. The Justice Department told Forbes its investigation into alleged coercion of a minor and production of child sexual abuse material is ongoing, but to date, no charges have been filed against John. (His and Johanne’s real names have been changed to protect their identities.)
It’s been known for years that phone and device tracking technologies from a variety of manufacturers are used as tools of abuse and control. Alongside Find My iPhone, other phone makers’ tracking tools and parental monitoring apps like Life360 have reportedly been used to facilitate crimes, ranging from stalking to sexual trafficking.
In 2019, British architect Callum Henderson, 28, was found guilty of harassing a woman he’d met on a dating app by following her movements via Find My iPhone. Police in Australia have reported find-my-phone tools are frequently used to facilitate abuse. And in another example of trafficking recently discovered by Forbes, in late 2020, a juvenile victim who had been forced into prostitution told investigating officers that her abuser used Find My iPhone to monitor all the women on “the blade” — a stretch of road where individuals solicit sex.
Joe Scaramucci, a Texas-based trafficking investigator, said it was common for traffickers to use Find My iPhone and similar tools because it was the easiest way to monitor victims while they were on dates, or “just in general.”
Apple hadn’t responded to requests for comment at the time of publication. However, experts who spoke with Forbes acknowledged that while the issues with these technologies are well-known, solutions to prevent using them for abuse would be difficult to implement.
Lana Ramjit, director of operations at Cornell Tech’s Clinic to End Tech Abuse (CETA), works directly with survivors of intimate partner violence. She told Forbes that among the 25 to 30 victims she works with every month, reports of “find my device” apps being used as remote monitoring tools was by far the most common issue reported. Find-my-phone tools were effective enough and easier to use, Ramjit said, adding, “Abusers tend to put the minimal possible effort into getting the information that they want.”
Ramjit said CETA regularly provided feedback to Apple on product design related to protecting victims of abuse. She said that it’s led to various updates, such as notifications for users to let them know that Find My iPhone will continue to beacon out an accurate location even when their phone is off. Apple also has a “Safety Check” feature, which allows anyone who feels their safety is at risk to quickly stop sharing their data and location.
Sometimes it’s not possible to see who is viewing your location, however. One problem, Ramjit added, is that it’s possible to check an iPhone’s location over a browser, but that access is never flagged as an actively logged-in device. Apple could go further, Ramjit said, and ensure there are logs showing when and where someone checked the location of a device. That could provide an evidence trail, should abuse lead to a civil or criminal trial, she said.
Outside of such updates, there may be little more Apple or other tech providers can do to prevent abuse where the victim is compelled to share their location or is unaware it’s happening. Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who has led campaigns against so-called “stalkerware,” said there had been discussions about a “coercion alert mode” but it wasn’t clear how that would work. “I wish I had a recommendation, but no,” she said.
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