A Woman Got Harassed Via Smart Home Devices By Ex-boyfriend

Nowadays, we are paying more attention to smart home devices for two reasons: security and convenience. However, the security feature comes with a side effect when someone tries to control your smart home.

Home security cameras

Ferial Nijem, a single woman that lives in Canada, became a victim of this side effect. On CBC, a local publication, Nijem told that her abusive ex-boyfriend stalked and harassed her by controlling smart devices in her home.

Recalling the past nightmare, Nijem shared about the time when she and her ex-boyfriend were still together but they lived separately. The abusive boyfriend would take control of security cameras to check on her, and call her on FaceTime all day to ensure she didn’t cheat on him.

Thing went worse, this man even did more intrusive actions. He randomly turned on and off her televisions and lights, blasted music from her smart speaker at full volumes during the night. Since Nijem did not have control over her smart home devices, there was nothing she could do.

If you think this kind of incident happens only once, think again. Earlier this year, the New York Times cites other stories with the same problems. Particularly, according to over 30 interviews conducted, abusers plague their victims with their homes’ smart devices. The abusers were reported to turn speakers and lights on and off, crank thermostats up to make the homes uncomfortably hot, or even lock people out of their own homes. The incidents are likely to happen when people do not have an adequate understanding of how smart devices work or how much control abusers have.

People even get locked out of their homes

In most cases, victims suffer from serious psychological trauma, in which they feel unsafe due to losing control of their home. Unfortunately, this type of crimes is becoming more and more common in developed countries, threatening many people.

And since urban citizens in India start to adopt smart technology in their homes, we may soon witness cases similar to Nijem’s.