Safety Alert For Battered Women
FOCUS Ministries, Inc.

If This is An Emergency:

• Call 9-1-1
  If possible, call 9-1-1. If you cannot safely call from where you are, place the call as soon as you are out of the house and out of danger.
  
  
• Alert Neighbors:
  Alert your neighbors to call 9-1-1 for you if they hear suspicious sounds coming from your apartment or house.
  
  
• Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at: 800-799-SAFE (7233)
  
  
• Use a "Safe Computer"
  If you are using a computer, please use a safe computer. E-mail is not a safe or a confidential way to communicate with someone about the danger or abuse in your life. Please call a hotline instead.
  
  
  • There are hundreds of ways that computers record everything you do on the computer and on the Internet. If you are in danger, please try to use a safer computer with a safe Internet acesss that someone abusive does not have direct access, or even remote (hacking) access to.
    
    
  • Use a computer with safe Internet access. Examples of "safe computers" include:
    
    
    1. A computer in a public library
    2. A computer at a trusted friend's house
    3. A computer at a technology center
    4. A computer at an Internet Cafe.
    
    
  • Computers can provide a great deal of information about what you have viewed on the Internet such as the e-mails that you have sent, the web pages that you have looked at and other activities. It is not possible to delete or clear "all" computer “footprints”. If you have used your personal computer recently, you can delete your viewing "temporary Internet files" and "history" in Internet Explorer. However, please do not rely on this method alone. Use a safe computer for all future Internet communication and browsing.
    
    
    1. Open Internet Explorer
    2. Locate and open "Tools" at the top of the screen.
    3. Open "Interent Options"
    4. Locate: "Temporary Internet files" > Pages you view on the Internet are stored in a special folder for quick viewing later.
    5. Select: "Delete Files"
    6. Locate: "History" > The History folder contains links to pages you've visited, for quick access to recently viewed pages.
    7. Select: "Clear History"
    
    
    
  • If you think your activities are being monitored, they probably are. Abusive people are often controlling and want to know your every move. One does not need to be a computer programmer or have special skills to monitor someone’s computer activities – anyone can do it and there are many ways to monitor.
    
    
  • If you think you may be monitored on your home computer, please do not use your personal or home computer for accessing the Internet. For example: If you are planning to flee to Florida, do not look at classified ads for jobs and apartments, bus tickets, etc for Florida on a home computer or any computer an abuser has physical or remote access to. Use a computer with safe Interent access that cannot be accessed by the abuser to research an escape plan.
  
  
  
• Note: Traditional “corded” phones or "land line phones" are more private than cell phones or cordless phones.

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