Abusers are increasingly using artificial intelligence, smartwatches and connected home technology to track, intimidate and control women, a leading domestic abuse charity has warned.
Refuge said record numbers of women affected by technology-facilitated abuse were referred to its specialist services during the final three months of 2025. The charity reported a 62% rise in the most complex cases, involving 829 women, alongside a 24% increase in referrals of women under 30.
Refuge said recent cases have involved perpetrators exploiting wearable technology such as smartwatches, Oura rings and Fitbits to monitor victims’ movements, manipulating smart home systems to control lighting and heating, and using AI-powered spoofing tools to impersonate other people.
Emma Pickering, head of Refuge’s tech-facilitated abuse team, said: “Time and again, we see what happens when devices go to market without proper consideration of how they might be used to harm women and girls. It is currently far too easy for perpetrators to access and weaponise smart accessories, and our frontline teams are seeing the devastating consequences of this abuse.
“It is unacceptable for the safety and wellbeing of women and girls to be treated as an afterthought once a technology has been developed and distributed. Their safety must be a foundational principle shaping both the design of wearable technology and the regulatory frameworks that surround it.”
Refuge said the ease with which smart devices can be misused highlights the need for women’s safety to be built into technology design from the outset.
One survivor supported by the charity, Mina, described how she was tracked after leaving her smartwatch behind while fleeing her abuser. He was able to locate her emergency accommodation using linked cloud accounts.
“[It] was deeply shocking and frightening. I felt suddenly exposed and unsafe, knowing that my location was being tracked without my consent,” she said. “It created a constant sense of paranoia; I couldn’t relax, sleep properly, or feel settled anywhere because I knew my movements weren’t private.”
Despite police recovering the device, Mina said she was later located at another refuge by a private investigator hired by her abuser, using suspected technology-based tracking. She reported the incidents to police but was told no crime had been committed because she had “not come to any harm”.
“I was repeatedly asked to move for my safety, rather than the technology being dealt with directly or the smart watch being confiscated from him,” she said. “Each move made me feel more unstable and displaced.”
“Overall, the experience left me feeling unsafe, unheard, and responsible for managing a situation that was completely out of my control. It showed me how tech abuse can quietly and powerfully extend coercive control, and how easily survivors can be left to carry the emotional and practical burden when systems don’t fully understand or respond to it.”
Pickering said abusers were also increasingly using AI tools to manipulate and discredit survivors. She described cases where videos had been altered to make women appear intoxicated, allowing perpetrators to claim: “she’s acting erratic again, slurring speech, she’s got a drink problem”, in attempts to portray them as unfit parents or a danger to themselves.
“We’ll see more and more of that as these videos and applications advance,” she said.
She added that AI is also being used to create convincing fake documents, such as job offers or legal notices, to deceive survivors into believing they are in debt or to lure them to locations where their abuser may be present.
Pickering warned that emerging medical technologies could pose even greater risks in future, citing concerns that devices such as diabetes trackers could potentially be misused to manipulate insulin levels, with fatal consequences.
She urged the government to take stronger action on technology-enabled abuse, including increased funding for specialist digital investigation teams. “They want short-term wins, they don’t want to think about longer-term investment in this area, but if we don’t do that we’ll never get ahead,” she said.
Pickering also called for greater accountability for the technology sector. “Ofcom and the Online Safety Act don’t go far enough,” she said.
A government spokesperson said: “Tackling violence against women and girls in all its forms, including when it takes place online or is facilitated by technology, is a top priority for this government.
“Our new VAWG strategy sets out how the full power of the state will be deployed online and offline. We are working with Ofcom to set out how online platforms tackle the disproportionate abuse women and girls face online.”