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Software monitoring companies have been the subject of criticism ever since the technology emerged in the early 2000s. One of such companies that have felt this on their own skin is Spy Phone.
Established in 2009 by Dan Parisi, Spy Phone is the developer of child protection apps for both iOS and Android phones. The company applied for the trademark that same year, which was approved by the United States Trademark Office in 2011.
In 2012, Spy Phone developed its first Android app which was followed by its iOS version two years later. The apps continued to evolve and in 2019, the developers added the contacts and reverse phone lookup features.
The criticism vs the benefits
Tracking apps have often found themselves at the receiving end of public and media criticism that often denounced the negative aspects of their use. For instance, some publications argued that people could misuse these apps to keep tabs on their romantic partners or employees under false pretenses.
Despite the criticism being quite harsh at times, these journalists are right to raise concerns about online freedom and privacy in the use of monitoring software solutions. However, they only tell one side of the story. What they all seem to be missing are the many benefits of such a technology when in the right hands.
First and foremost, Spy Phone gives parents peace of mind knowing that their children are safer. Being online (and offline) in today’s society carries plenty of risk for adults, let alone youngsters. The inherent dangers include anything from pornography to sexual abuse to kidnapping to fraud to bullying – and they don’t stop there.
Obviously, this type of service has emerged out of an actual need. In the early 1990s, the advent of the Internet, while bringing immense benefits, has also created one of the biggest parental nightmares. Namely, this new way of communication and connecting people has allowed pedophiles and dangerous sects to pray upon children and victimize them.
Children are avid users of the Internet and social networks (possibly even more than their parents). However, it may be difficult to explain to them that not everyone they meet online is going to be a friend. Chances are, they’re going to run into someone posing as a friend but with malicious intentions. Such a person may even successfully talk the child into meeting them in private. This is why parents have to be on the constant lookout for people who communicate with their child without preventing the child from using electronic devices, to begin with.
Using apps such as Spy Phone or other tracking systems allows worried parents to be aware of their child’s whereabouts, who they’re communicating with, what they’re accessing online, and if there are any dangerous apps they might be exposed to. Having access to this information allows parents to act accordingly if they notice anything suspicious.
Secondly, similar technologies are plentiful and widely used for doing good by various organizations and agencies, including the government. These agencies may fight against human trafficking, pedophilia, and many other problems that in modern times can’t be addressed in many other ways than by monitoring.
One of those organizations is Christopher J. Hadnagy’s Innocent Lives Foundation, established in 2017. Dedicated to preventing crimes against children (pedophilia, child trafficking, child pornography), this organization deploys different security methods. These vary from the assistance of information security specialists to working together with law enforcement to using data acquired through open-source intelligence.
“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”
One way to illustrate the problem is through the popular saying above – that it isn’t the technology itself that does harm.
After all, it is used in self-defense, as well as by the police and military to protect citizens’ lives and property or to maintain order. However, it can become dangerous when placed in the wrong hands and/or used for wrong purposes.
Perhaps an even better example would be nuclear energy. If placed into the wrong hands and used for wrong purposes, it can do devastating and long-term harm (just think of the nuclear bomb, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and so on). Nonetheless, when used for the right purposes, nuclear energy is an exceptionally useful and environmentally friendly source of energy, a great alternative to hazardous coal and hydro-energy that decimates river fauna.
A similar comparison can be made with gene editing, a technology that allows scientists to alter the DNA of an organism. Such technology still evokes a lot of negative sentiment due to fears of it someday being used for not entirely ethical purposes, like creating genetically engineered humans or ‘designer babies’. Yet, gene therapy may be an effective method to cure a wide array of ailments that currently cannot be addressed by existing medicine.
Even the invention of the Internet itself wasn’t without problems as it opened a route for a new breed of wrongdoers – cybercriminals, but also a world of advantages that far outweigh its dangers. These benefits include improved information flow, education, communication and connections, more convenient shopping, remote work, smart devices, strengthening human rights, and more.
Speaking of the Internet, Spy Phone is one of the software solutions that actually help vulnerable netizens such as children stay safe in this vast space, and outside it.
To use or not to use – is that really the question?
Considering the above-listed examples, it becomes clear that the ‘dangers of new technologies’, including Spy Phone’s software can’t just be narrowed down to an overly simplistic question of whether ‘to use or not to use it’.
This is a much broader issue that includes consensus in the society and legislative actions that bring order into a new technology that many don’t quite grasp yet. In this sense, it’s no different from gene editing, stem cell research, nuclear energy, and many other technological advances, even the Internet itself.
All new technologies are like a double-edged sword. They each come with their own benefits and potential problems, which has historically been the case with many technologies. Atomic energy comes with radiation risks. Cars produce toxic gasses. Finally, the Internet has opened the doorway to hacking, abuse, bullying, and many other issues.
In this sense, tracking technology isn’t much different. Hence, the question of whether to use it or not, becomes a matter of individual decision with consequences for the society.
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