Building a Safety Culture: What Companies & Platforms Should Be Doing

When Shalini Thakur discovered she was being tracked, the system failed her at multiple levels. The failure was not one person's fault; it was a system-wide gap created by organizations working in silos.

What Tech Companies Should Be Doing

Tracker manufacturers should improve identity verification, make tracker names visible, send faster notifications, support cross-account warnings, maintain useful logs, cooperate with investigations, and educate users about misuse.

What Rental Platforms Should Be Doing

Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO, and similar platforms should require documented security audits, verify lock security, require code and key changes between guests, clearly disclose cameras, investigate incident reports, notify affected guests, remove properties with confirmed hidden cameras, and phase out vulnerable locks.

What Hotels Should Be Doing

Hotels should audit rooms regularly, screen employees with room access, log master-key use, prohibit cameras, notify guests after an incident, provide confidential reporting, and protect whistleblowers.

What Employers Should Be Doing

Employers with traveling staff should provide tracker and hidden-camera awareness, door wedges and alarms, encrypted communication, 24/7 access to security, check-in protocols, flexible booking options, legal and mental-health support, and workplace security for employees facing stalking.

What Social Platforms Should Be Doing

Location tagging should be opt-in. Real-time check-ins should be limited. Platforms should warn users when posts reveal routines, make stalking reports easy, remove harassing accounts quickly, and restrict the sale or exposure of location history.

What Law Enforcement and Legislators Should Be Doing

Law enforcement needs training in digital stalking, faster coordination with technology companies, escalation protocols, and victim support. Legislators should address NFC cloning, non-consensual tracker placement, voyeurism, hotel and rental audits, smart-lock standards, and anti-stalking features.

What You Can Do Right Now

As a consumer, choose companies with strong safety records, use privacy settings, ask rental providers about audits, and report concerns. As an employee, request travel safety training and support. As a business owner, make safety a protocol rather than an afterthought.

Modern stalking is enabled by technology. Technology can also enable modern protection, but only if companies and institutions prioritize it.