Friday, November 8, 2024

Laws struggle to keep up as digital trackers increasingly used by domestic abusers

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Grant Killen often receives phone calls from women who cannot help shake the feeling they are being watched.

Mr Killen runs Concentric Concepts, a surveillance security company that works with Queensland Police and domestic violence organisations. 

The former police officer said he was often asked to sweep cars for signs of GPS tracking devices which could be used to monitor a person’s movements.

Grant Killen says it is difficult to regulate emerging technologies such as trackers. (ABC News: Lexy Hamilton-Smith)

“They’re cheap, they’re easy to get, you can order one in China and it can be in your mail within four or five days,” Mr Killen said.

“The changes in technology are so fast that we can’t keep up, and the imagination of perpetrators using these technologies can be quite outlandish.”

Lack of regulation

Griffith University applied ethics and cybersecurity researcher David Tuffley said there was a lack of regulation for tracking devices or bluetooth tags in Queensland and Australia.

A headshot of a man

David Tuffley says there are few laws regulating tracking devices in Queensland. (Supplied: David Tuffley)

“Quite clearly we do need to have law reform in the regulation of tracking devices,” Dr Tuffley said.

“There’s a widening gap between the regulations and what the capabilities of technology currently are and will be.

“Law reform has to be done right with all due diligence and not hurried, but that is fundamentally at odds with the pace that technology is evolving.”

A NSW Crime Commission report released on Tuesday found many spy stores were “wilfully blind” to what their customers’ intentions were for their tracking devices.

The report found nearly 40 per cent of customers who bought trackers from private investigators and spy stores were known to police for domestic violence or organised crime.

It found 82 per cent of tracking device offences were domestic violence related.

“Some private investigators and ‘spy stores’ promote the illegal use of surveillance devices and offer illegal surveillance services to customers,” the report found.

Gaps in Queensland law

A Queensland Law Reform Commission (QLRC) report handed down in 2020 noted there were “gaps and uncertainties” in the laws for surveillance devices in the state.

However, it noted it was difficult to regulate the industry given how widespread tracking technology was in everyday devices.

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