Women are arming themselves with technology to protect against violence. Is it working?

By Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN

(CNN) — The man accused of killing 22-year-old college student Laken Riley in February while she was jogging on the University of Georgia campus was convicted of murder this week and sentenced to life in prison.

Laken’s sister, Lauren Phillips, now a University of Georgia student herself, walks the grounds of her dream school in fear.

“I cannot walk around my own college campus because I am terrified of people like Jose Ibarra,” she said tearfully in court this week, as her sister’s killer looked on.

Riley went for a run in broad daylight. She texted her mother to let her know what she was doing. She used her cell phone to share her location with trusted friends. And she used her phone’s SOS feature to call for help when she was being attacked.

Many women who use these tools to keep themselves safe would say Riley did everything right. And there’s a growing arsenal of products aimed at enhancing safety and protecting peace of mind.

Apps like Find My Friends, or the runner’s app Strava, allow people to share their locations with friends. Some ride share apps offer users the option to share their route with a third party. Personal safety alarms that can fit in a pocket or on a keychain are advertised with sleek designs and eye-catching colors. Shoe insoles and backpacks are being sold with GPS trackers attached. Phones, watches and other devices can make emergency calls with the push of a button.

But, as tragic cases like Riley’s continue to emerge, many are taking a closer look at the role technology can play in keeping people safe, along with the vulnerabilities it can create.

Holding criminals to account

In addition to the safety technology that people intentionally adopt, almost every person with a smart phone leaves a digital trail that be incredibly valuable in holding bad actors to account.

Investigators were able to use location data from both Riley’s and her attacker’s phones to trace their movements the day of Riley’s death. The data placed the two in close proximity at the time of her killing, according to court testimony. Data from Riley’s smartwatch revealed the moment her heart stopped.

“In today’s world, there’s an expectation by a jury that there will be some kind of digital evidence,” said Jane Anderson, a senior attorney advisor with AEquitas, a nonprofit that workshops prosecution practices related to gender-based violence and human trafficking.

That digital evidence can be especially important in cases of domestic violence or sexual assault, where there are rarely eyewitnesses present.

For example, prosecutors can use cell phone or location data to corroborate details of a victim’s account and bolster their credibility in the eyes of a jury, Anderson said.

“You should believe this victim because she told you this, and I corroborated it. She told you this, and I corroborated it,” Anderson said. “And then she told you that he sexually assaulted her ­– and while I don’t necessarily have a surveillance camera on the sexual assault, you can then also believe that part of the disclosure, because she was so believable in the rest of the disclosure.”

In the absence of eye witnesses, video, cell phone and location data were a central part of the 2023 murder case against Alex Murdaugh, who was sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and son, Paul Murdaugh.

In the case against Bryan Kohberger, accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, investigators were able to use location data to determine his cell phone was near the scene where the students were killed.

And this year, Richard Allen was convicted of murdering two teenagers in Delphi, Indiana, in 2017, after investigators examined evidence linking him to the crime, including a video recorded on one of the victim’s phones that appeared to capture their attacker.

“In many cases, that type of technology – sadly, what it does is allow an investigation. It tells you where somebody is, where they were last known to be, perhaps ongoing location data, if the offender then takes that phone and continues to use it,” Anderson said. “It’s an investigative tool, but in and of itself, it’s not going to keep you safe.”

“The other side of that coin for almost every type of digital device is how it can be misused,” she warned.

The other side of the coin

Advocates for victims and survivors of gender-based violence say technology can be a powerful safety tool. But people need to be aware of the ways it can leave them vulnerable to harm – and how to close those gaps.

The National Network to End Domestic Violence created the Safety Net Project to educate survivors and advocates about tech safety and privacy.

“As the world is getting more and more tech savvy, there are products and devices that can be really helpful for our safety and our convenience,” said the group’s CEO, Stephanie Love-Patterson. “We just have to be cognizant of the fact that there are individuals, unfortunately, who seek to use those very things to cause harm.”

Often, a person who intends to cause harm knows their victim and has access to their technology devices, she noted. If that person is tech-savvy, they can break into or monitor those devices for information about their victim’s location or communications.

“Technology leaves a footprint, and one of the things that we talk often about in our Safety Net Project is how to erase or decrease that footprint – and it involves a lot,” Love-Patterson said.

That’s where technology education comes into play. The Safety Net project encourages people to do their research and make a plan when it comes to their own safety, including only sharing location information with trusted people, changing passwords often and documenting threats or suspicious incidents.

Staying vigilant and reporting suspicious behavior can also go a long way in helping the people around you – even those you don’t know, Love-Patterson noted.

The day that Riley was killed, a UGA graduate student reported a person who peered into and tried to open the front door of her apartment. Surveillance video corroborated the student’s account, and cell phone location data linked Riley’s killer to the incident.

Earlier this week, that student sat in a Georgia courtroom and testified in the trial that ultimately resulted in his life-sentence.

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CNN’s Eric Levenson contributed to this report.