Digital Smarts - Smartphones and Domestic Abuse

There is a lot of discussion about the dangers and risks that come with using technology. Privacy concerns, cyberbullying and identity theft are all hot topics, but even scarier is the rise of cyberstalking. The use of digital tools by husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, lovers, and exes is becoming more and more common in cases of domestic abuse. An article on the National Public Radio site entitled Smartphones Are Used To Stalk, Control Domestic Abuse Victims lays out exactly how tools like mSpy work to monitor targets and how they become a way for their users to dominate and control victims. Contacts, call logs, text messages, call recordings, photos, video files, and browser history can all be accessed using mSpy. There's a keylogger function that records everything the target types into his or her smartphone (including web addresses, usernames and passwords), and a location tracking function that shows where the device has been, how long it was there, and how it got there and back. In addition to pulling information from the device, mSpy also gives stalkers the ability to alter settings on the phone, such as blocking calls from a certain number.

Of course this software isn’t marketed as an app for an obsessed lover. Spyware like this is marketed to parents who want to watch their kids or employers who want to watch their employees – supposedly with their full knowledge. Apps like mSpy have hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and even though customers sign an agreement acknowledging it's illegal to secretly spy on someone, no one is monitoring how and on who these digital tools are being used.