This project aims to evaluate and empirically analyse the technological support provided by Australian government websites and apps, as well as related official platforms, for women facing domestic violence. The analysis will focus on four key dimensions: (1) the comprehensiveness and accessibility of information on domestic violence support; (2) privacy and safety features, such as quick-exit buttons and anonymous browsing options; (3) the presence of tools or mechanisms for implicitly identifying women at risk; and (4) the inclusivity of services in addressing diverse linguistic, cultural, and accessibility needs. The scope includes federal and state government websites (e.g., Australia.gov.au, Respect.gov.au) and recognized NGOs or support organizations like White Ribbon Australia and 1800RESPECT.
Research Questions:
- Information and Support: How comprehensive and accessible is the information on domestic violence support available on these websites?
- Privacy and Safety: Do these websites implement features to protect user privacy and safety, such as quick-exit buttons or anonymous browsing options?
- Implicit Detection: Are there tools or mechanisms that can discreetly identify women at risk?
- Inclusivity: Do these websites cater to diverse linguistic, cultural, and accessibility needs?
School
Computer Science and Engineering
Research Area
Cyber security | Natural language processing (NLP) | Privacy
Suitable for recognition of Work Integrated Learning (industrial training)?
No
- Research environment
- Expected outcomes
- Supervisory team
- Reference material/links
The student will have access to infrastructure and computing resources to launch the project.
The supervisory team includes experts in cybersecurity and NLP.
Students will meet with their supervisors weekly to review progress.
The project will generate a comprehensive understanding of the technological support currently offered by Australian government agencies and non-profit organizations in addressing technology-facilitated abuse. It will also identify critical gaps and limitations in these services, providing evidence-based insights to guide improvements in policy, design, and delivery of digital support platforms for women facing domestic violence.
- Maied Almansoori, Mazharul Islam, Saptarshi Ghosh, Mainack Mondal, and Rahul Chatterjee. 2024. The Web of Abuse: A Comprehensive Analysis of Online Resource in the Context of Technology-Enabled Intimate Partner Surveillance. In 2024 IEEE 9th European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P). IEEE, 773–789.
- Rosanna Bellini. 2023. Paying the price: When intimate partners use technology for financial harm. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1–17.
- R Bellini, K Lee, MA Brown, J Shaffer, R Bhalerao, and T Ristenpart. 2023. The Digital-Safety Risks of Financial Technologies for Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence. USENIX Security Symposium.
- Rosanna Frances Bellini. 2024. Abusive partner perspectives on technology abuse: Implications for community-based violence prevention. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 8, CSCW1 (2024), 1–25