Notes from the field

What we're learning.

Research notes, field observations, and updates on technology facilitated abuse, coercive control, AI safety and digital forensics, from The Digital Safeguard Centre team.

8 October 2026 In the media

ABC Radio National: technology abuse, and training the DFV sector on AI

We're speaking with ABC Radio National about technology facilitated abuse in domestic and family violence, and how AI is changing it. The same tools that make this abuse cheaper, easier and harder to detect can also help find it: Joliro, our digital safety platform, uses trauma informed AI to help victim survivors and case workers identify technology facilitated abuse, with people, not models, making the decisions that matter.

QR code linking to the RN Breakfast interview on ABC Listen
Listen · RN Breakfast · 14 min Changing Australia: Andrew Collins on ending tech-facilitated abuse With Sally Sara, ABC Radio National, 8 October 2026. Scan to listen on your phone.
8 October 2026 Speaking

Rose MacDonald on the panel at the Trust & Safety Festival, Sydney

Rose MacDonald joins a panel at the Trust & Safety Festival in Sydney. A former detective and digital forensic specialist, Rose brings 20 years of law enforcement experience and the Centre's frontline work with victim survivors to the conversation, a month after being named Cyber Leader of the Year at the International Women in Cyber Day Canberra Awards.

15 September 2026 Speaking

AI in the DFV sector: presenting at the WESNET Tech Safety Summit in Brisbane

Andrew Collins and Rose MacDonald presented at WESNET's Tech Safety Summit in Brisbane on the vulnerabilities, risks and opportunities AI brings to the domestic and family violence sector.

9 September 2026 Speaking

AI Through a Gendered Lens: our panel at the DVNSW conference

Andrew Collins joined the AI Through a Gendered Lens panel at the Domestic Violence NSW conference, on what the domestic and family violence sector needs to weigh when it engages with AI: policy, practice, ethics and organisational compliance, read through a feminist lens. The session looked at how services are using AI now, the risks and opportunities that creates, and what matters for future adoption. Andrew was joined by Courtney Artridge (Women's Health NSW), Sparrow Katekar (Carrie's Place) and Hannah Louise (Women's Legal Service NSW), with Associate Professor Lubna Alam, University of Sydney, facilitating.

9 July 2026 In the media

Mamamia: "The law can't keep up with this invisible form of abuse. It's happening right inside our phones."

Andrew Collins spoke to Mamamia for its coercive control series, on what technology facilitated abuse actually looks like after separation. "It is rarely the hacking people imagine. It runs on ordinary consumer technology, shared accounts, Find My, vehicle apps and wearables, used as surveillance." The people doing it are typically not hackers; they're tech competent former partners who set up the devices while the relationship was good and never gave that access up. The piece also covers how AI is lowering the capability floor further, and why the law keeps arriving after the harm.

May 2026 Speaking

Presenting at UCL: solutions, prevention and introducing JOLIRO

After returning from London, we've been reflecting on the opportunity to present at the University College London conference on technology facilitated gender based violence. Both presentations focused on solutions: prevention, early intervention, and how emerging technologies can establish safer digital environments, with safety, privacy and ethics at the centre of the design ethos. The conference provided an opportunity to introduce many participants to JOLIRO, our soon to be released Women's Safety Platform, designed to equip victim survivors and case managers with practical tools to assess, detect, and manage tech abuse.

2 May 2026 Research

Lagging, not leading: our paper on tech facilitated abuse is now published

Our research into technology facilitated domestic and family violence, exploring how perpetrators exploit consumer technology and how the sector is responding, is now available through the University of Canberra Research Profiles.

April 2026 Community

Proud to be part of the Snow Entrepreneurs fellowship

Something special happens when one cohort of change-makers welcomes the next. Nansen is proud to be part of the Snow Foundation's fellowship, though we were across the world in New York when the Gidgees (2023) and Bunyas (2025) cohorts gathered at the Snowies Retreat 2026. The fellowship connects bold founders with funding, mentorship, and a peer community committed to tackling Australia's hardest social challenges.

March 2026 Speaking

Blockchain, AI and domestic violence: presenting at the Black Swan Summit

The ACS Blockchain Committee took to the stage in Perth at the Black Swan Summit to explore where blockchain sits alongside AI across emerging technology, including Nansen's work using blockchain to support victims of technology facilitated abuse. Topics ranged from stablecoins and carbon accounting to the role of emerging technology in protecting vulnerable people.

March 2026 Speaking

Verifiable, tamper proof evidence for survivors: our BlackSwan Conference presentation

Nansen presented at the BlackSwan Conference alongside the ACS Blockchain Committee on using blockchain to protect women experiencing technology facilitated abuse. Blockchain's ability to create decentralised, immutable records makes it a powerful tool for survivors who need evidence that cannot be altered or manipulated by a perpetrator.

March 2026 Announcement

Nansen appointed to the ACS Artificial Intelligence Ethics Committee

We are proud to have a representative appointed to the Australian Computer Society's AI Ethics Committee. The people most excluded from the design of AI are often the people most affected by it: those experiencing vulnerability, marginalisation or social isolation don't just miss out on AI's benefits; they bear the cost of its failures. Safe AI isn't just about security. It's about who gets left out.

March 2026 Event

Balancing the scales: CSW70 panel discussions in New York

The American Australian Association hosted two panels at CSW70 in New York: "Balancing the Scales," exploring financial freedom and support systems for women, and "Gender Justice, Equality and Migration," examining legal safety for migrant women. Grateful to have been part of the conversations advancing gender equality on the global stage.

March 2026 Field note

CSW70: what happens when women from around the world come together

UN Women Australia's CSW70 contingency returned from New York with clarity and conviction. Progress is collective. The key takeaways reflect the urgency, hope and action needed to achieve gender equality, and the power of being in rooms where global reality is laid bare without softening.

March 2026 Field note

Andrew and Rose at CSW70: from insight to implementation

Andrew and Rose attended the 70th Commission on the Status of Women at UN Headquarters in New York with UN Women Australia, the largest annual global gathering focused on gender equality and women's rights. Across sessions on gender based violence, technology facilitated abuse, economic injustice, and peace and security, the challenge facing the sector is clear: we understand the problems. The real opportunity lies in moving from insight to implementation at scale.

Wherever you're starting from

You don't have to figure this out alone.

Whether you're a survivor, a frontline service, a researcher, or a procurement leader who refuses to accept forced labour in your supply chain: there's a door here for you.