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Follow Me

Kathleen Barber
Contents (64)
  1. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  2. PROLOGUE HIM
  3. CHAPTER ONE AUDREY
  4. CHAPTER TWO CAT
  5. CHAPTER THREE AUDREY
  6. CHAPTER FOUR CAT
  7. CHAPTER FIVE AUDREY
  8. CHAPTER SIX CAT
  9. CHAPTER SEVEN HIM
  10. CHAPTER EIGHT AUDREY
  11. CHAPTER NINE AUDREY
  12. CHAPTER TEN HIM
  13. CHAPTER ELEVEN CAT
  14. CHAPTER TWELVE AUDREY
  15. CHAPTER THIRTEEN HIM
  16. CHAPTER FOURTEEN AUDREY
  17. CHAPTER FIFTEEN HIM
  18. CHAPTER SIXTEEN CAT
  19. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN AUDREY
  20. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN CAT
  21. CHAPTER NINETEEN HIM
  22. CHAPTER TWENTY AUDREY
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE CAT
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO AUDREY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE AUDREY
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR HIM
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE CAT
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX AUDREY
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN HIM
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT CAT
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE HIM
  32. CHAPTER THIRTY AUDREY
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE CAT
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO AUDREY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE AUDREY
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR AUDREY
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE CAT
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX AUDREY
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN AUDREY
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT HIM
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE CAT
  42. CHAPTER FORTY AUDREY
  43. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE HIM
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO AUDREY
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE AUDREY
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR CAT
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE HIM
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX AUDREY
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN AUDREY
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT HIM
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE AUDREY
  52. CHAPTER FIFTY CAT
  53. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE AUDREY
  54. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO CAT
  55. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE AUDREY
  56. CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR HIM
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE CAT
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX AUDREY
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN MAX
  60. CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT CAT
  61. CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE AUDREY
  62. CHAPTER SIXTY MAX
  63. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  64. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cover: Follow Me, by Kathleen Barber

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Follow Me by Kathleen Barber, Gallery Books

For Marc

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The internet is a weird place, full of unexpected rabbit holes. Follow them at your own risk—you might discover something new and interesting, or you might find yourself reaching for the eye bleach.

One day I stumbled upon the latter while idly browsing the Legal Advice subreddit. It’s one of my favorite places to kill time online: as a non-practicing lawyer, I enjoy the discussion surrounding the more mundane queries (landlord-tenant disputes, arguments with neighbors over property lines), and as a practicing writer, I can’t get enough of the more outrageous tales (discovering gold in the walls of an inherited home, learning a spouse thought long dead is in fact alive). That afternoon, I came across a poster concerned that his boss was accessing employees’ home security cameras.

How outlandish, I thought. This post must be fake. But no one else appeared to have the same reaction and instead casually rendered advice as though it were no more exotic than a speeding ticket. I saw references to another subreddit dedicated to “controllable webcams,” and, intrigued, visited it. There I found post after post sharing links to what appeared to be live footage of restaurants, bars, doggy day cares, and more. I turned to the internet at large, attempting to discern what exactly a “controllable webcam” was, where they were located, and how these internet denizens were discovering them. Could anyone find them? Could I, for instance, find more puppy cams?

But my research took a hard left turn as I stumbled across an article with the chilling headline “Meet the men who spy on women through their webcams.”I

I read in horrified fascination how someone, using only minimal technological skill, could secretly install a remote administration tool, or RAT, on another person’s computer. With the RAT installed, the “ratter” then has almost complete access to the victim’s computer, including their files, screen, and webcam. From that point on, whenever the victim uses their computer, a stranger might be monitoring their activity—both digital and physical.

I read about how some ratters toy with their victims, playing pranks like opening porn on their screens; some steal website credentials; and some are more invasive, scouring hard drives for compromising photographs or other blackmail material. I was far more disturbed, however, by the ratters who collect “slaves”—their name for the women they’ve spied on via webcam. In addition to watching their “slaves” in secret, these ratters gather in forums to share what they’ve observed their oblivious “slaves” doing and posting screenshots of the women. When they’re bored with a “slave,” they might sell or trade her to someone else on the forum, further perpetuating the violation of privacy.