Retina-X Studios, the creators of Mobile Spy, the next generation of smartphone spy software, has announced a new version of its Mobile Spy software. Several new features have been introduced, such as using the phone’s camera and microphone to listen and see the phone’s surroundings, like take pictures and upload them to a remote website. This means that when the software is turned on, a remote user can use the phone as a complete spy device and find where and what the owner of the phone is doing.
The new version also takes advantage of Geo-location, which is an ability smartphones have to understand where they are based on a GPS location. Using Geo-location the phone can alert a remote user when the phone has moved. This goes along with other features already in Mobile Spy, such as copying phone, text logs and viewing Internet browsing history.
Retina-X claims that its software has uncovered car thefts, drug usage, runaways, employee theft and even a teacher having a relationship with a student, but when has technology replaced being interested in our children’s lives? Not to mention when does this ability enter the world of misuse?
Technology misuse is not a new phenomenon. Some would argue that it is a product of the digital age. When looked at with a historical perspective, it has been an issue since man discovered fire. Tools have been developed by man for hundreds of years – tools such as levers, wheels, hammers, etc. Tools are devices, no matter how simple or complex, and they are intended to improve culture and society. They make hard tasks easy. They are humanity’s singular skill to make our lives better than those of our forbearers.
But it does not take long before others with less altruistic intent fashion ulterior uses for these tools. The current trend in technology is no different. Personal computers can be used to create useful data or to destroy it, to build valuable software or malware. Technology is meant to help people and society. It does not care how or what that help is. Whether it is hacking into financial records, or recording criminals in the act of a crime, to watching our children. Technology simply does what is it designed to do. In simple terms, technology is a lever to amplify humanity’s will.
The same technology to safeguard our lives can be used to track our lives. Every day we must ask what we are giving up for the desire to be safe.
Edited by
Alisen Downey