FlexiSpy - monitors all activity on a handset

Link: The Observer | UK News | Mobile phone users warned of dangers in ‘spy’ software.

Would you spy on your spouse? A company is urging consumers to buy ‘secret’ mobile phone software so they can read their partner’s text messages. Yet it denies encouraging infringement of privacy laws.FlexiSpy is billed as the ‘world’s most powerful spy software for mobile phones’, which enables a buyer to ‘secretly record every SMS [text] message, view their call history, and more!’ Its website even has a ‘testimony’ from a customer. ‘Thanks to FlexiSpy, I finally figured out my wife was cheating on me with my brother,’ he claims. ‘My life is so much better.’

This prompts a potentially stimulating debate and I’m not entirely sure what I think of it. 

The software has to be installed manually on the ‘spied upon’ handset, making it difficult to do without the owner’s knowledge.

Absolute nonsense.  If the user goes to the toilet and leaves their handset sat on the table, you could have downloaded and installed the application on their phone by the time they return.  I don’t think your average mobile user would know to have a look in their applications folder for any weird looking icons they don’t recognise.

On the other hand — seeing an icon for FlexiSpy on the handset is a rather tell tale sign … I doubt many people would say to themselves ‘oh I haven’t seen that before… I’ll just leave it though’.   

Does FlexiSpy have a purpose other than enabling people to snoop on the mobile communications of other people?  If not, then I think I need to hop off the fence and decide that it’s not that useful an addtion to the mobile industry.   I suppose it could be a rather useful way of monitoring you children’s mobile usage — which, in some instances, might be valuable.  Much like parental controls on various services (AOL, for example),  even if they’re not specifically activated, the knowledge that your parents could check what you’ve been up to can help to moderate behaviour.  Somewhat redundant though, if you stick it on your child’s phone, only to have them uninstall it!

So I applaud the innovation — FlexiSpy will no doubt be a popular choice for those suspecting cheating partners  (Goodness knows what a court might make of evidence obtained by such a facility) however I don’t agree with the basic motivation behind using the service.

The site’s at www.flexispy.com.

(Well spotted, Alex!)