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What does it mean to document my evidence?
Documenting your evidence means that you are taking steps to do the following:
- safeguard proof you have of the abuse, such as:
- printing out emails that show evidence of abuse;
- taking screenshots of text messages or social media posts;
- printing photographs or cell phone records;
- accurately record incidents of abuse as they happen in a log, including:
- the date and time of each incident;
- what the abuser did or said;
- what actions, if any, you took; and
- what witnesses or evidence you have that is related to the incident; and
- not change the evidence at all. So, for example, let’s say the abuser sends a threatening email that is unsigned. You cannot add his/her name to the email just because you know that s/he wrote it.
Documenting your evidence correctly can be crucial if you later need to produce it for a court hearing or other legal matter.
Why is documenting evidence important in cases involving technology abuse?
If an abuser is using technology to abuse you, it is important to document the evidence as soon as possible. This is because an abuser may be able to access the technological evidence and delete it. Even if you don’t want to take legal action now, consider whether you might later on.
It may be your instinct to keep the abuser’s actions “away” from you. For instance, you might delete threatening messages from an abuser or block the abuser if s/he is harassing you on social media. This is a completely understandable response. However, before you do this, it’s important to think through how this could affect your ability to document evidence. If you delete messages, for example, this could permanently erase your ability to access them in the future. This can create a dilemma for many survivors who don’t want to erase evidence yet don’t want to be subjected to abusive technological contact. A couple of ways to minimize having to see the abusive material can be to:
- silence message text notifications from the abuser;
- set up a folder in your email account and create a “rule” for emails from the abuser’s email address to go straight to the separate folder.
Filtering the abuser’s communications will allow you to have access to the information when you want to without constantly having to see it.
How should I document technology abuse?
One way you can document your evidence is to keep a record (log) of the details of each incident as the incidents occur. You can download a sample technology abuse log to help with this.
Another important part of documenting evidence is storing the evidence in a safe location. For instance, if your phone is not safe, you may be able to store evidence such as voicemails, call logs, emails, or text messages in a cloud storage account, like Dropbox. You can also take screenshots or photos of the phone or computer screen and store those in a safe location. Be sure to capture as much information as possible. For instance, you will want to show the phone number of the person who is sending harassing messages, not just the contact name you assigned to that person in your phone. Multiple screenshots may be necessary for each item. For instance, you could take one of the message with the contact name, and another of the contact name and phone number. With screenshots of social media posts, be sure to include the full URL web address that is in the bar at the top of the window as well as the abuser’s profile page.
To document emails, print them with the full header information included. If you do not know how to do this, you can Google “[your email provider, like Gmail or Outlook] + get header information.” This preserves details such as the date and time of the email and the IP addresses it passed through to get to you. In some cases, it may even show the sender IP address, though this is less common nowadays. It is important to only document this from the original email. If the email has been forwarded, it will not have the same information.
Many social media sites and apps allow you to download the data on your account. If you have filed criminal charges or are involved in a court case, law enforcement or your lawyer may be able to send a letter or subpoena to the social media company or website to preserve and produce the account information.
Sometimes people find evidence that they are being stalked or monitored through a hidden camera, microphone, or GPS tracker. If this happens, you may want to think through the impact of removing or interfering with the equipment. Removing it could impact your safety, if the abuser knows that you found it, as well as interfere with your ability to document it. One option is asking the police to document the evidence before removing it. Before taking any action, you may want to work with a domestic violence advocate to think through how removing the equipment may impact your safety. The abuser may escalate his/her violence if s/he realizes you have discovered it.
