Security News > 2024 > March > Stalkerware usage surging, despite data privacy concerns
In North America, 77 percent of all instances were in the United States, according to the annual State of Stalkerware report.
Stalkerware is easily available and can be downloaded from the internet onto a victim's smartphone without their knowledge, enabling whomever put the surveillance app on their partner's or child's devices to spy on their victims while the software remains "Invisible to the user."
"It's so insidious and intrusive, it allows a perpetrator to have full access to whether someone's developing a safety plan to flee, contacting an agency, sharing concerns around domestic abuse, around stalking, harassment," said Emma Pickering, head of technology-facilitated abuse and economic empowerment team at Refuge, the largest domestic abuse organization in the UK. "It allows the perpetrator to have that insight and be a step ahead of that victim-survivor," Pickering told The Register.
This includes receiving unwanted emails or messages, being filmed or photographed without their consent, having their location tracked, having a partner obtain access to their social media or email without consent and having stalkerware installed on their device without their knowledge.
"Every aspect of our life is digital these days. We bank, we shop, we socialize online, governments do what they do online," said David Emm, security and data privacy expert at Kaspersky.
Despite being tech-savvy and knowing how to navigate devices they don't necessarily know how to avoid harmful content online or consider the privacy tradeoffs of their digital behavior.