Tracking someone’s digital footprints is a form of cyberstalking

Criminal Law /
Céline Dostaler
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By LegalMatters Staff • If you use the internet, e-mail or other telecommunication technologies to harass or stalk another person you could be considered a cyberstalker.

The crime can take many forms, including using GPS tools to track someone’s physical location without their permission or following a victim’s social footprints to monitor what they post.

“Cyberstalking can also involve sending harassing messages, sometimes forged in the victim’s name, through e-mail or text message to the victim or the victim’s employers, co-workers, students, teachers, customers, friends or family,” says Ottawa criminal lawyer Céline Dostaler.

“It can also take the form of ‘cyber-smearing,’ where you post false or embarrassing intimate information about someone in an attempt to destroy their reputation,” she addss. “Other forms including sending viruses to the victim’s computer or constructing a new identity to entice the target to unknowingly befriend the perpetrator.”

Dostaler says while both men and women can be victims of cyberstalking, females are more likely to be targeted.

“Those accused of cyberstalking are often charged with criminal harassment,” she says. “If that charge is treated as an indictable offence, the maximum prison sentence is 10 years.”

And if the cyberstalking includes the distribution of child pornography, the maximum sentence rises to 14 years in prison, Dostaler explains.

“With less serious cases, the judge may issue a peace bond,” she adds. “These court orders last up to 12 months with conditions that can include an offender being restricted from contacting the victim or their family in person or online. If it can be shown the offender is not abiding by the terms imposed, they could be sent to jail.”