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In a major victory in our campaign to stop stalkerware, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today banned the Android app company Support King and its CEO Scott Zuckerman, developers of SpyFone, from the surveillance business. The stalkerware app secretly “harvested and shared data on people’s physical movements, phone use and online activities through a hidden device hack,” according to the FTC. The app sold real-time access to surveillance, allowing stalkers and domestic abusers to track potential targets of their violence.
EFF applauds this decision by the FTC and the message it sends to those who facilitate by technical means the behavior of stalkers and domestic abusers. For too long, this nascent industry has been allowed to thrive as an underbelly to the much larger and diverse app ecosystem. With the FTC now turning its focus to this industry, victims of stalkerware can begin to find solace in the fact that regulators are beginning to take their concerns seriously.
The FTC case against Support King is the first to outright ban a stalkerware company and comes two years after EFF and its Director of Cybersecurity Eva Galperin launched the Coalition Against Stalkerware to unite and mobilize security software companies and advocates for domestic abuse victims in actions to combat and shut down malicious stalkerware apps.
Stalkerware, a type of commercially-available surveillance software, is installed on phones without device users’ knowledge or consent to secretly spy on them. The apps track victims’ locations and allow abusers to read their text messages, monitor phone calls, see photos, videos, and web browsing, and much more. It’s
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Read the original article: Victory! Federal Trade Commission Bans Stalkerware Company from Conducting Business