If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
“Safety planning” refers to making a personal plan to try to stay safe while in an abusive relationship, or when planning to leave, or after leaving that relationship.
Each person’s safety plan is unique. A safety plan might involve:
- Getting things ready to be able to leave quickly, such as making a “go bag.”
- Having “safe words” to alert other people when you are in danger or to tell them to go somewhere safe.
- Asking friends and family for help.
- Hiring a lawyer.
- And more.
For more information on safety planning, please visit The Hotline.
To speak to someone in person about safety planning, please contact Safe House Denver.
Internet safety
Victims may want to search information on the Internet while making a safety plan. Sometimes abusers track where victims go on the Internet. To browse privately:
- Chrome: under Menu, click New Incognito Window
- Firefox: under Menu, click New Private Window
- Internet Explorer: under Safety Menu, click InPrivate Browsing
- Safari: under File, click New Private Window
To stop someone from seeing where you have been on the Internet, victims can clear their browsing history:
- Chrome: under Menu, click History and recent tabs > History > Clear browsing data
- Firefox: open a new tab and click the gear icon, click Clear browsing history
- Internet Explorer: under Tools, click Safety > Delete browsing history
- Safari: under the Safari menu, click Clear History and Website Data
Technology Safety for Victims
Sometimes abusers, ex-partners or other people take advantage of technology. Survivors may want to make a technology safety plan.
Some simple steps can help make your electronics safe:
- Change the password on your phone, computer, and any online accounts (bank, credit card cell phone, social media). Changing passwords can make it harder for other people to watch what you do online, steal from you, or misuse your information.
- Turn off location tracking and sharing on your phone to stop people from seeing where you are. You can do this under your phone’s location settings.
- Switch to a device that no one else has used before. For example, change to a phone that an ex-partner has never used.
Security cameras, video doorbells, and other devices can tell you when someone comes up to or into your home. Sometimes ex-partners, abusers, and others misuse these devices, such as to spy on you. If you think any of your devises are being misused, you can:
- Call the company that made the device to change your account information.
- Change the router or network WiFi settings to get control over the system.
Techsafety.org has a lot of resources on technology safety for survivors, and can be found here: https://www.techsafety.org/resources-survivors
For more information on Internet and technology safety:
http://nnedv.org/resources/safetynetdocs.html
