…it protects marriage equality

The right to privacy is crucial to protect a couple’s equal rights within marriage.

The recent rise of spyware as an “off-the-shelf” product that anyone can purchase has been extremely worrying, as installing spyware on someone else’s phone means getting access to their contacts, their messages, their google searches, their location and more - all without them knowing.

Spyware is, increasingly, becoming another way for abusive spouses to control and monitor their partners. Nearly a third of respondents to a survey conducted by women’s aid - a UK charity working to end domestic abuse against women and children - “experienced the use of spyware or GPS locators on their phone or computers by a partner or ex-partner”. Kaspersky, a digital security company, saw a 373% in spyware they found in January to August 2019 vs 2018.

One woman, whose abuse was facilitated by technology, told the independent:

“He wanted to control me in the relationship. He controlled what I wore and ate, what friends I had, where I lived, where I worked and monitored my everyday movements – constantly ringing me or door-stepping me at work. But he carried on controlling me after we broke up. I think he wanted to scare me by knowing he still had control. I felt like I was never going to live a life he didn’t know about. I felt very low. I got a diagnosis of PTSD.”

It is already extremely difficult for anyone to leave an abusive partner - the majority of women who are murdered by an abusive partner are killed after leaving.

Together with women’s aid - we’ve launched a series of digital social media cards giving women practical information on how to help stay safe digitally from control and abuse.

1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. 2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses. 3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State. Article 16, Right to marriage and to found a family