Department of Justice (DOJ) Acting Inspector General William M. Blier announced today the release of a Management Advisory Memorandum to the Directors of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) regarding the need for grant recipients to safeguard victim information when using various technologies.
The DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that payment, ridesharing, and other apps or technologies present the risk that a victim’s location can be identified by an abuser. This was based on prior audit work which repeatedly identified privacy and confidentiality concerns related to the use of ridesharing applications. If appropriate measures are not taken to use these technologies safely, a victim’s abuser can easily exploit these technologies to cause harm.
The DOJ OIG recommended that OJP and OVW coordinate and take actions to raise awareness among grant recipients on mitigating risks to victim safety that can occur through the use of technologies that store personally identifiable information and location information. OJP and OVW concurred with our recommendation and coordinated to develop and distribute a bulletin to OJP and OVW-funded state administering agencies (SAAs) to raise awareness of threats to victim safety posed by these technologies. In addition, OVW stated it will develop a webinar, which will be distributed to SAAs upon completion and be included in its new grant recipient orientation materials. As a result of OJP’s and OVW’s commitment to victim privacy and proactive actions addressing this area of concern, the recommendation has been closed.