当智能家居成为家暴“帮凶”

SAN FRANCISCO — The people who cAlled into the help hotlines and domestic violence shelters said they felt as if they were going crazy.

旧金山——给帮助热线和家庭暴力受害者收容所打电话的人表示，她们觉得自己要疯了。

One woman had turned on her air-conditioner but said it then switched off without her touching it. Another said the code numbers of the digital lock at her front door changed every day and she could not figure out why. Still another told an abuse help line she kept hearing the doorbell ring, but no one was there.

一个女人打开空调，但说它自己关掉了，而她根本没碰过空调。另一人说她家前门电子锁的密码每天都会变，她搞不明白为什么会这样。还有人告诉一条家暴帮助热线说，她听到门铃响，但门口根本没人。

Their stories are part of a new pattern of behavior in domestic abuse cases tied to the rise of smart home technology. Internet-connected locks, speakers, thermostats, lights and cameras marketed as the newest conveniences are now also being used as a means for harassment, monitoring, revenge and control.

她们的故事是家庭暴力案件里一种新型行为的一部分，这种行为与智能家居技术的崛起有关。联网门锁、音箱、温度调节装置、灯以及摄像头被宣传为给人们提供便利的最新设备，如今它们也被用作骚扰、监视、报复和控制的手段。

In more than 30 interviews with The New York Times, domestic abuse victims, their lawyers, shelter workers and emergency responders described how the technology was becoming an alarming new tool. Abusers — using apps on their smartphones, which are connected to the internet-enabled devices — would remotely control everyday objects in the home, sometimes to watch and listen, other times to scare or show power. Even after a partner had left the home, the devices often stayed and continued to be used to intimidate and confuse.

在《纽约时报》进行的30多次采访中，家庭暴力受害者、她们的律师、收容所工作人员及急救人员描述了这类科技是如何成为一种令人担忧的新工具的。智能手机上的应用程序能够连接这些通过网络控制的设备，施暴者远程控制家中的日常物件，他们有时候是为了观看或收听家里的情况，其他时候是为了恫吓或显示威力。即使是在伴侣离开家中之后，这些设备也常常留在家中，继续达到吓唬和迷惑的目的。

For victims and emergency responders, the experiences were often aggravated by a lack of knowledge about how smart technology works, how much power the other person had over the devices, how to legally deal with the behavior and how to make it stop.

对于受害者和救援人员来说，缺乏对智能科技运作原理、另一个人对这些设备的控制程度有多深、如何合法应对这种行为，以及如何阻止这种行为的了解，往往使这种经历恶化。

“People have started to raise their hands in trainings and ask what to do about this,” Erica Olsen, director of the Safety Net Project at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, said of sessions she holds about technology and abuse. She said she was wary of discussing the misuse of emerging technologies because “we don’t want to introduce the idea to the world, but now that it’s become so prevalent, the cat’s out of the bag.”

“人们开始在培训中举手询问该怎么应对这种情况，”终结家庭暴力全国网络(National Network to End Domestic Violence)安全网项目(Safety Net Project)主管艾丽卡·奥尔森(Erica Olsen)提到她举办的关于科技和虐待的会议时说。她说对于不当使用这些新兴科技的讨论，她感到很担心，因为“我们不想向全世界介绍这种概念，但如今它已经变得如此常见，已经是众所周知的现象了”。

Some of tech’s biggest companies make smart home products, such as Amazon with its Echo speaker and Alphabet’s Nest smart thermostat. The devices are typically positioned as helpful life companions, including when people are at work or on vacation and want to remotely supervise their homes.

科技行业一些最大的公司都在生产智能家居商品，例如亚马逊(Amazon)的Echo音箱，以及Alphabet的Nest智能温控器。这些设备通常被作为有用的生活伙伴，用处包括当人们上班或度假期间，想要远程监控家里的时候。

Connected home devices have increasingly cropped up in domestic abuse cases over the past year, according to those working with victims of domestic violence. Those at help lines said more people were calling in the last 12 months about losing control of Wi-Fi-enabled doors, speakers, thermostats, lights and cameras. Lawyers also said they were wrangling with how to add language to restraining orders to cover smart home technology.

据帮助家庭暴力受害者的工作人员表示，过去一年里，联网的家居设备在家庭暴力案件中突然出现增长。那些在帮助热线工作的人士表示，过去12个月里，有越来越多人打来电话，内容是关于由无线网络控制的门锁、音箱、温度控制器、灯和摄像头失控的。律师们也表示，他们正在就如何在禁制令中增加涵盖智能家居科技的措辞争吵不休。

Muneerah Budhwani, who takes calls at the National Domestic Violence Hotline, said she started hearing stories about smart homes in abuse situations last winter. “Callers have said the abusers were monitoring and controlling them remotely through the smart home appliances and the smart home system,” she said.

在全国家庭暴力热线(National Domestic Violence Hotline)接听电话的穆妮拉·布瓦尼(Muneerah Budhwani)表示，去年冬天时，她开始听到与智能家居有关的虐待故事。“打来电话的人说，虐待她们的人通过智能家居设备和智能家居系统，远程监视、控制她们，”她说。

Graciela Rodriguez, who runs a 30-bed emergency shelter at the Center for Domestic Peace in San Rafael, California, said some people had recently come in with tales of “the crazy-making things” like thermostats suddenly kicking up to 100 degrees or smart speakers turning on blasting music.

格拉谢拉·罗德里格斯(Graciela Rodriguez)在加州圣拉斐尔家庭和平中心(Center for Domestic Peace)掌管一个有30张床位的应急收容所，她说，近期一些住进来的人提到了“让人发疯的东西”，比如温度控制器突然调高到了100华氏度，或是智能音箱开始播放震天响的音乐。

“They feel like they’re losing control of their home,” she said. “After they spend a few days here, they realize they were being abused.”

“她们觉得正在失去对家里的控制，”她说。“在这里待了几天后，她们意识到自己是受到了家庭暴力。”

Smart home technology can be easily harnessed for misuse for several reasons. Tools like connected in-home security cameras are relatively inexpensive — some retail for $40 — and are straightforward to install. Usually, one person in a relationship takes charge of putting in the technology, knows how it works and has all the passwords. This gives that person the power to turn the technology against the other person.

智能家居科技很容易成为不当使用的工具，而人们这么做的原因多种多样。像家中联网的安全摄像头这样工具的价格较为适中——一些摄像头的零售价为40美元——而且安装容易。通常，处在一段关系中的一方会负责给家里装上这些科技产品，这个人知道这些设备如何运作，也拥有全部密码。这会让这个人拥有利用这些科技针对另一方的能力。

Emergency responders said many victims of smart home-enabled abuse were women.

应急人员表示，智能家居虐待的受害者多为女性。

Connected home gadgets are largely installed by men, said Melissa Gregg, a research director at Intel working on the implications of smart home technology. Many women also do not have all the apps on their phones, said Jenny Kennedy, a postdoctoral research fellow at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, who is researching families that install smart home technology.

在英特尔(Intel)研究智能家居科技影响的研究总监梅丽莎·格雷格(Melissa Gregg)表示，互联家庭设备的安装者以男性居多。澳大利亚墨尔本皇家理工大学(RMIT University)博士后研究员詹宁·肯尼迪(Jenny Kennedy)表示，许多女性并未在自己的手机上安装所需应用。肯尼迪正在对安装了智能家居科技的家庭进行研究。

(One in three women and one in four men have been victims of physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner, according to a 2010 Centers for Disease Control report.)

（根据美国疾病控制中心2010年发布的报告，每三名女性或每四名男性之中就有一名是肢体暴力的受害者，或曾受亲密伴侣的骚扰。）

The people who spoke to The Times about being harassed through smart home gadgetry were all women, many from wealthy enclaves where this type of technology has taken off. They declined to publicly use their names, citing safety and because some were in the process of leaving their abusers. Their stories were corroborated by domestic violence workers and lawyers who handled their cases.

向时报报告了有关被人通过智能家居设备骚扰案例的均为女性，她们大多来自此类科技盛行的富裕地区。她们以安全为由拒绝公开姓名，且一部分人正在摆脱各自的施暴者。她们的说法得到了家暴工作人员和案件经手律师的证实。

Each said the use of internet-connected devices by their abusers was invasive — one called it a form of “jungle warfare” because it was hard to know where the attacks were coming from. They also described it as an asymmetry of power because their partners had control over the technology — and by extension, over them.

所有人都表示，施暴者对连网设备的使用都是入侵性的——有人称之为一种“丛林战”形式，因为难以了解攻击者在何处。她们还将其称为权力不对称，因为另一方拥有技术的掌控权——进而扩展为对她们的掌控。

One of the women, a doctor in Silicon Valley, said her husband, an engineer, “controls the thermostat. He controls the lights. He controls the music.” She said, “Abusive relationships are about power and control, and he uses technology.”

其中一位女性是硅谷的医生，她表示，自己的工程师丈夫“控制温度，控制灯光，控制音乐”。她说：“虐待关系重点是权力和控制，而他用的是科技。”

She said she did not know how all of the technology worked or exactly how to remove her husband from the accounts. But she said she dreamed about retaking the technology soon.

她表示，她不清楚这些技术如何工作，或者如何移除丈夫的账号。但她说，她梦想着能夺回技术控制权。

“I have a specific exit plan that I’m in the process of implementing, and one of my fantasies is to be able to say, ‘OK Google, play whatever music I want,'” she said. Her plan with the smart thermostat, she said, was to “pull it out of the wall.”

“我有一个正在实施的特别退出计划，我的一个梦想就是能够说，‘好，Google，播放我想听的音乐’，”她说。她表示，她对智能温控器的处理办法就是，“把它从墙上拔出来”。

When a victim uninstalls the devices, this can escalate a conflict, experts said. “The abuser can see it’s disabled, and that may trigger enhanced violence,” said Jennifer Becker, a lawyer at Legal Momentum, a women’s rights legal advocacy group.

专家表示，当受害者卸除设备时，冲突可能会加剧。“施暴者可以看见设备被拆除，这可能会使暴力升级，”女权法律倡导组织法律动力(Legal Momentum)的律师詹妮弗·贝克(Jennifer Becker)说。

Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, said disabling the devices could also further cut off a victim. “They’re not sure how their abuser is getting in and they’re not necessarily able to figure it out because they don’t know how the systems work,” Galperin said. “What they do is they just turn everything off, and that just further isolates them.”

数字权益团体电子前沿基金会(Electronic Frontier Foundation)网络安全主管伊娃·加尔佩林(Eva Galperin)表示，关闭这些设备还可能会使受害者进一步遭到隔绝。“她们不确定施暴者是如何登入设备的，也不一定能研究明白，因为她们不知道这些系统是如何运作的，”加尔佩林说。“她们做的只是将所有设备关机，而这只会进一步孤立自己。”

Legal recourse may be limited. Abusers have learned to use smart home technology to further their power and control in ways that often fall outside existing criminal laws, Becker said. In some cases, she said, if an abuser circulates video taken by a connected indoor security camera, it could violate some states’ revenge porn laws, which aim to stop a former partner from sharing intimate photographs and videos online.

相关法律手段也十分有限。贝克表示，施暴者已经了解如何使用智能家居科技来拓展他们的权力，而他们的掌控方式往往处于现有的刑法范围之外。她表示，在某些情况下，如果施暴者传播室内联网安全监控录下的视频，可能会触犯部分州的色情报复法律，该法律旨在阻止前任在网上分享亲密照片及视频。

Advocates are beginning to educate emergency responders that when people get restraining orders, they need to ask the judge to include all smart home device accounts known and unknown to victims. Many people do not know to ask about this yet, Becker said. But even if people get restraining orders, remotely changing the temperature in a house or suddenly turning on the TV or lights may not contravene a no-contact order, she said.

倡导者已开始教育应急人员，当人们在申请限制令时，他们需要要求法官将受害者已知或未知的一切智能家居设备账户包括在内。贝克表示，许多人还不知道如何提出这一要求。她说，即使人们得到了限制令，遥控改变房内温度或突然打开电视或电灯，可能也并不违反禁止接触令。

Several law enforcement officials said the technology was too new to have shown up in their cases, although they suspected the activity was occurring.

多名执法官员表示，这些科技太过新颖，他们还未接到过相关案例，不过他们怀疑类似活动确有发生。

“I’m sure that it’s happening,” said Zach Perron, a captain in the police department in Palo Alto, California. “It makes complete sense knowing what I know about the psychology of domestic violence suspects. Domestic violence is largely about control — people think of physical violence but there’s emotional violence, too.”

“我确信这是正在发生的事情，”加州帕洛阿尔托的警局副巡长扎克·佩伦(Zach Perron)说。“据我对家暴活动嫌疑人心理特征的了解，这完全说得通。家庭暴力主要事关控制——人们认为是肢体暴力，但还有感情暴力。”