Eva Galperin is one of my colleagues at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, running our Threat Lab project, where she has made it her personal mission to eradicate stalkerware: malicious software marketed to abusive spouses, overbearing parents, and creepy employers, which runs hidden on mobile devices and allows its owner to spy on everything his target is doing ("Full access to someone’s phone is essentially full access to someone’s mind" -Eva). Read the rest

Michael Avenatti has been arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of domestic violence. Read the rest

People who help domestic abuse survivors say that they are facing an epidemic of women whose abusers are torturing them by breaking into their home smart devices, gaslighting them by changing their thermostat settings, locking them out of their homes, spying on them through their cameras. Read the rest

South Carolina legislator Chris Corley, who was recently elected to a second term, is well-known for his support of the Confederate flag. When the flag was taken down from the Statehouse in July 2015 in response to the slaughter of nine black churchgoers by a Confederate flag embracing domestic terrorist, Corley sponsored a bill for a statewide vote to return the flag. The bill failed.

Corley is no longer a South Carolina legislator. Yesterday he pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal domestic violence, which carries a sentence from probation to 10 years in prison. The judge was lenient, giving him probation.

From AP:

[A]uthorities say he attacked his wife during an argument over his infidelity the day after Christmas. In a police report, authorities said the couple's young children were present when Corley attacked his wife, biting her nose bloody and pointing a gun at her.

"Just stop, Daddy. Just stop," his children can be heard on a 911 call. "Daddy, why are you doing this?"

Corley's wife said he stopped hitting her only after noticing she was bleeding and hearing the children screaming, authorities said. Prosecutors said he took away his wife's cellphone to keep her from summoning help, but that she managed to call 911 on her Apple Watch.

Authorities said that after Corley threatened to kill her and then said he'd kill himself, his wife took the children to her mother's house across the street.

This adorable pup Chewy sadly had to part ways with his owner. Both Chewy and his owner were victimized by an abusive boyfriend, and smartly they ran. Unable to afford a companion ticket for Chewy to fly with her, his owner left him in a bathroom at Las Vegas/McCarran International Airport with a note seeking a better future.

Domestic violence doesn't just affect humans. Travelers at McCarren Airport in Las Vegas were surprised to find a puppy abandoned in a bathroom over the weekend.

A note was found with the Chihuahua, identified as Chewy. In it, his former owner revealed that she had come to the airport to flee an abusive relationship and was unable to pay to get her pup on the plane. Unwilling to leave him with her ex-boyfriend, whom she claimed had been physically abusive to the 3-month-old dog as well as with her, she left him behind.

"Hi! I'm Chewy! My owner was in an abusive relationship and couldn't afford me to get on the flight," the note read. "She didn't want to leave me with all hear heart, but she has no other option. My ex-boyfriend kicked my dog when we were fighting and he has a big knot on his head. He probably needs a vet. I love Chewy sooo much — please love and take care of him."

Via NY Daily News

I hope both Chewy and his former owner enjoy lives free of any further abuse. Read the rest

Flexispy (previously) is the creepy, sketchy stalkerware company that makes tools that allow jealous, abusive spouses track their partners, and then hides their profits in offshore money-laundries. Read the rest

For $170, Motherboard's Joseph Cox bought SpyPhone Android Rec Pro, an Android app that you have to sideload on your target's phone (the software's manufacturer sells passcode-defeating apps that help you do this); once it's loaded, you activate it with an SMS and then you can covertly operate the phone's mic, steal its photos, and track its location. Read the rest

Mississippi has 12 grounds for divorce, including impotency, adultery, habitual drunkenness and incurable mental illness. But a bill that would have added domestic violence to the list died in the senate last week. Read the rest

[Video Link: "Birthday Cake in the Face."]

A quickie remix parody of "Birthday Cake" by Rihanna ft. Chris Brown. Lyrics quoted directly from the police report (PDF). What is this about? Created by Andrea James and Calpernia Addams. Here's a related analysis that's worth a read.

Read the rest