CONGRESS SET TO BAN APPS THAT STALKER SPOUSES USE TO SPY ON THEIR PARTNERS CELLPHONES

Cyberspy: Mobile phone apps such as SpouseSpy allow users to monitor their partners' whereabouts and mobile phone communications

Mobile phone apps which allow wives and husbands to spy on their spouses by monitoring their whereabouts as well as their calls and text messages will be banned under a new law to be put before congress.

Software companies are currently able to sell so-called cyberstalking apps that operate secretly on cellphones thanks to a loophole in current laws.
Apps such Retina Software's SpouseSpy or ePhoneTracker, which sell for around $50 online, have become increasingly popular among jealous wives or husbands, but there are concerns they could be encouraging stalking and domestic violence.

After being installed on a person's phone, ePhoneTracker works by automatically emailing details of their activities to the worried partner.

'Suspect your spouse is cheating?' the company's website says. 'Don't break the bank by hiring a private investigator.'

Their website proudly describes how the app 'silently records EVERYTHING including full SMS messages, call info, GPS locations, web sites visited, contacts added and more'.

SPY APPS: HOW THEY WORK

• The jealous party must first get hold of their partner's mobile phone and secretly download the program onto it.
• The program then starts up every time the phone is switched on but remains undetectable by the user.
• It automatically sends details of all the phone's activity including text messages, calls and photographs to a registered email.
• The phone users' whereabouts are also logged using the built-in GPS sensors fitted to most modern smartphones.
• The spying party can log in to an account using a special pin number to monitor smartphone activities at any time.

But yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that makes it a crime for companies to make and intentionally operate a stalking app.

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., also would curb the appeal for such inexpensive and easy-to-use programs by requiring companies to disclose their existence on a target's phone.

Stalking and wiretapping already are illegal, but there are no provisions in federal law that clearly prohibit businesses from making an app whose primary purpose is to help one person stalk another.

Sen. Franken's proposal would extend the criminal and civil liabilities for the improper use of the apps to include the software companies that sell them.

The proposal would update laws passed years before wireless technology revolutionized communications.

Telephone companies currently are barred from disclosing to businesses the locations of people who make traditional phone calls.
But there's no such prohibition when communicating over the Internet. If a mobile device sends an email, links to a website or launches an app, the precise location of the phone can be passed to advertisers, marketers and others without the user's permission.

'What's most troubling is this: Our law is not protecting location information,' said Sen. Franken, chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law.

An emailed statement from Retina Software said the program is for the lawful monitoring of a cellphone that the purchaser of the software owns and has a right to monitor.
'If there is evidence the customer doesn't own the phone, the account is closed, the company said. The program is not intended or marketed for malicious purposes and doesn't facilitate stalking, the statement said.

The spy apps are also marketed as a way for concerned parents to monitor their children's mobile phones

But Franken and supporters of his bill said there is no way to ensure the rules are followed. These programs can be installed in moments, perhaps while the cellphone's actual owner is sleeping or in the shower.
The apps operate invisibly to the cellphone's user. They can silently record text messages, call logs, physical locations and visits to websites. All the information is relayed to an email address chosen by the installer.

Even when people discover the software on their phones, they don't know what to do, said Rick Mislan, a Rochester Institute of Technology professor who specializes in mobile security and forensics.

'Law enforcement usually won't help them because they've got bigger fish to fry,' he said.