FTC orders company to quit surveillance app business

The Federal Trade Commission has for the first time banned a company making so-called stalkerware from continuing in the surveillance app business

BOSTON -- The Federal Trade Commission has for the first time banned a company that makes so-called stalkerware — software used to surreptitiously track a cellphone user's activities and location — from continuing in the surveillance app business. Wednesday's action applies to the marketer of SpyFone, Puerto Rico-based Support King LLC, and its CEO, Scott Zuckerman. Such commercial surveillance products secretly obtain unfettered access to someone's smartphone, leading to serious harm, the FTC said in a statement on its website. Support King marketed SpyFone as a tool to monitor the activities of children and employees. But it neglected to prevent stalkers and domestic abusers from using it for surveillance, the FTC said. The company's products let the installer monitor a person's online activity, including text and video chats and, in a premium version, even secretly activate the device's microphone to record phone and video conversations.