- You know over the past couple of months
I've received an alarming number of partnership requests
from companies that offer mobile phone tracking
and surveillance services.
These apps are marketed for parental control,
employee monitoring, spousal tracking,
which frankly all sound like noble uses,
but let me be very clear before we start here.
This surveillance technology is scary,
and you need to think twice,
you need to think very hard before you start to use it.
Welcome to All Things Secured,
my name's Josh and I'm the father of two boys
who thankfully are too young to own a mobile phone,
but who do have access to a tablet,
where they can text with select people, watch shows,
play games and whatever.
I totally understand the fears associated with the unknown.
What's my son doing on his iPad?
What's my employee doing during work hours?
Or even why is my spouse late
to get home every single evening?
These cell phone tracking apps seem to offer
the perfect solution to these fears
and, I'll be the first to admit that there are probably
some very unique cases where a tracking app
is the correct solution,
but more often than not,
these apps are not only a replacement for healthy trust,
they also represent a terrible compromise
of your privacy and security.
Let's start with the security and privacy issues.
If you don't already know,
our current digital ecosystem is built
on the foundation of your personal data.
This is true of Facebook, it's true of Google,
it's true of Uber, and pretty much every other app
or online account that you have.
The product is rarely what you think
it is because in most cases the product is you.
And that's scary enough when you think
about what we voluntarily put out there on social media,
but with these spying apps we're taking it a step further
by giving out access to all of our data.
We're talking about seeing the content of text messages,
listening in on phone calls, live GPS location,
seeing what websites are being visited,
logging in what's being typed,
and in some case even access to a live stream
of both the front and the back cameras.
We're talking about a lot of information.
So what these apps, one such as mSpy, Cocospy,
FlexiSPY and others,
you're essentially entrusting all of this data
about your kids, your employees, your spouse,
to a single mostly unknown company.
You should certainly be careful about giving
this level of trust to a US-based company
that is subject to US laws and regulations,
but guess what?
None of these cell phone spying companies are based
in the US and why is that?
Because no US company in their right mind
would knowingly take on that kind of liability.
The only reason a foreign company is willing to do it
is because they know it would be harder
to litigate internationally.
Let's take Spyine as an example, they're based in China.
Cocospy told me they're based in Bangladesh,
but all of their messages came to me in Chinese,
mSpy is registered in the Czech Republic and FlexiSPY
was founded in Thailand.
I can go on and on, these aren't necessarily countries
where I want to be sending the most intimate data
about my loved ones or employees.
And I'm not speaking from prejudice here.
This is strictly practical.
If one of these companies
were to be caught miss handling the data,
what kind of recourse do you think you would have?
The answer is none (giggles).
These apps can be installed with little to no access
to the device, and operate in the background
without the user knowing.
Even if we put aside the legal problem
of consent for a moment?
Using this kind of software is a serious signal
to your kid, to your employer, to your spouse,
that you don't trust them at all,
to the point that you're willing
to compromise their entire digital life.
All this to say you won't be seeing reviews of any spy apps
on my YouTube channel here,
because I will not endorse the use of these apps,
and I highly recommend that you find another way
to build a trusting relationship with your kid, employee,
or hopefully even your spouse.
Talk to them, use the native GPS tracker on your phone
if you must, since at least with that, you're required
to receive the consent of those with whom you're connected.
Like I said earlier, there are extreme cases
where this kind of software might be useful,
but they're an exception not the rule.
Don't be that parent, that boss, or that spouse
that relies on technology to replace their role,
you can do better.
I realize this might be controversial
so I'm open to dialogue.
Do you agree with me here or not?
Leave a comment below with your thoughts
on these mobile spying apps,
and give this video a like if you found it useful.
And most of all stay safe
you already have too much personal information floating
around there on the internet.