“When you’re in a relationship with someone,” explains director Audace Garnett, “they may know your mother’s maiden name.”Big Tech safeguardsSouthworth’s efforts later extended to advising tech companies on how to protect users who have experienced intimate partner violence. In 2020, she joined Facebook (now Meta) as its head of women’s safety. When I asked sources what tech companies should be doing to mitigate technology-assisted abuse, researchers and lawyers alike tended to throw up their hands. Over roughly the past decade, major US-based tech companies including Google, Meta, Airbnb, Apple, and Amazon have launched safety advisory boards to address this conundrum. “To muffle the sound.”Laws play catch-upIf tech companies can’t police TFA, law enforcement should—but its responses vary.