FTC bans 'brazen' stalkerware maker SpyFone, orders data deletion, alerts to victims

2021-09-02 21:05

America's trade watchdog today banned stalkerware developer SpyFone and its CEO from the surveillance industry, effectively putting an end to its business.

In effect, the FTC said, Support King LLC, which traded as SpyFone.com, and its CEO Scott Zuckerman, "Secretly harvested and shared data on people's physical movements, phone use, and online activities" and allowed "Stalkers and domestic abusers to stealthily track the potential targets of their violence."

SpyFone is a brazen brand name for a surveillance business that helped stalkers steal private information.

SpyFone charged $119.95 for three months, or $199.95 for twelve months, of remote access to email and message content, contacts, photos, and even video chats, not to mention precise location data.

What's more, SpyFone was insecure, and if miscreants knew where to look, they could also collect victims' personal info without any authorization required, according to the FTC. Subscribers' passwords were also sent over networks in plain text, and harvested data was not encrypted at rest, the agency added.

The outfit is also required "To delete any information illegally collected from their stalkerware apps. It also orders them to notify owners of devices on which SpyFone's apps were installed that their devices might have been monitored and the devices might not be secure."

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/09/02/ftc_spyfone_stalkerware/

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