Stalking app SpyFone is no more after FTC ban

In a first for the Federal Trade Commission, the agency voted unanimously to ban the stalkerware app SpyFone.

How it earned the ban: SpyFone allegedly allowed people to purchase real-time data on the physical movements, phone use habits, and online activities of individuals. The tool enabled “stalkers and domestic abusers to stealthily track the potential targets of their violence,” according to the FTC’s statement.

• The app also had poor security practices, exposing the data of victims to hackers, in addition to the person explicitly tracking them.
• In August 2018, someone hacked into the company’s server and stole personal data on 2,200 consumers. The FTC alleges that SpyFone never remedied the vulnerability that led to this issue, despite promising to.

The FTC barred the app’s CEO, Scott Zuckerman, from the surveillance industry. Additionally, the company has to delete info collected by SpyFone and let all potential victims of the app know they may have been monitored.

Looking ahead… SpyFone is not the only stalkware app, and the use of such tech by abusers is not an isolated incident.FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra issued a separate statement encouraging federal and state law enforcement agencies to consider criminal penalties for similar cases in the future.

“While this action was worthwhile, I am concerned that the FTC will be unable to meaningfully crack down on the underworld of stalking apps using our civil enforcement authorities,” Chopra wrote.—DM