Antivirus Vendors and Non-Profits Join To Form 'Coalition Against Stalkerware'

Ten organizations today announced the creation of the Coalition Against Stalkerware, the first global initiative of its kind, with the sole purpose of fighting against stalkerware. From a report: Also known as spouseware, stalkerware is a smaller category of the spyware class. Stalkerware refers to apps that abusive partners install on the devices of their loved ones without their knowledge or consent. They contain features that allow the abuser to track their significant other's geographical location, web browsing habits, social media activity, log keystrokes inside instant messaging apps, retrieve photos, or even record audio and video without the owner's knowledge. Stalkerware apps are available for both mobile and desktop operating systems and are often sold commercially under the guise of child trackers, pet trackers, phone-finding apps, remote access toolkits, and so on. This kind of apps live in a gray area of the current app ecosystem where they can be used for both legitimate and criminal purposes, giving app makers an easy excuse when confronted with abuse reports from victims -- albeit some apps are more blatant and advertise themselves as a way to catch cheating girlfriends, although, these cases are rare.

Sorry to pre-emptively go there

[Iamthecheese]

...but I need to get to work. Since half of this thread is going to be SJW vs anti-SJW here [domesticvi...search.org] are some solid stats about intimate partner abuse.

OK, admit it...

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Who else read it as 'Coalition Against Slackware'?

Does Windows 10 count? /s

[UnknownSoldier]

Seriously though, why not?

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Seriously though, why not?

Because it's not a secret. You know if you're running Windows 10. It's still spyware, but it's not stalkerware. It's panopticonware.

Re:

[geekmux]

Seriously though, why not?

Because it's not a secret. You know if you're running Windows 10. It's still spyware, but it's not stalkerware. It's panopticonware.

Uh, if it's not a secret, then feel free to elaborate exactly what Microsoft is doing with your data, right now.

And Facebook.

And Google.

Should you feel better or worse that they're also taking your data and whoring it out to every bidder? Is an internet stalker really any better than a data pimp, or should we wait until it's too late to find out?

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Uh, if it's not a secret, then feel free to elaborate exactly what Microsoft is doing with your data, right now.

Maybe you failed to RTFS.

Also known as spouseware, stalkerware is a smaller category of the spyware class. Stalkerware refers to apps that abusive partners install on the devices of their loved ones without their knowledge or consent.

Does that help you comprehend what we're talking about and what we aren't talking about? I'm not defending Microsoft, I'm defending accurate communication. This isn't that complicated, and everything you needed to understand the conversation was included in the fine summary.

Cerberus for Android

[emil]

Several hours after my last Cerberus install, it threw a notification advising that it had been installed, warning me if I had not personally done so.

This is a responsible thing for Cerberus to do.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Several hours after my last Cerberus install, it threw a notification advising that it had been installed, warning me if I had not personally done so.
This is a responsible thing for Cerberus to do.

Relatively responsible, anyway. Perhaps they should warn you immediately.

Re:

[LenKagetsu]

Abuser installs Cerberus, sees notification, deletes it and finds another spyware.

Capitalism by any other name...

[geekmux]

They contain features that allow the abuser to track their significant other's geographical location, web browsing habits, social media activity, log keystrokes inside instant messaging apps, retrieve photos, or even record audio and video without the owner's knowledge.

Ah, so it's perfectly acceptable when Greed does this to billions of people in the name of profits? How many "bugs" in mainstream apps have we found doing similar kind of spyware shit? Yeah, tell me again how they didn't mean to do that, but somehow made millions off the "oops" before being caught.

And "stalkerware" logic conflates well with a narcissistic society who broadcasts their lives online for the world to see anyway.

Re:

[Solandri]

Ah, so it's perfectly acceptable when Greed does this to billions of people in the name of profits?

It's perfectly acceptable when you give them permission to do this. Which in most commercial cases you have when you signed that contract or clicked agree on the EULA. (If you haven't, it results in cases like the Sony rootkit fiasco.)

Capitalism is basically pure democracy - every individual is free to make their own decisions, unhindered by the opinions of others. And the aggregate sum of those individ

Re: Capitalism by any other name...

[astrofurter]

"clicked agree on the EULA"

So if somewhere in the 50 pages of inscrutable legalese the shrinkwap leonine "contract" says they can hide in the bushes and peep in my window, that's okay too?

Hmmm

[tsqr]

As I read TFS, my thoughts went to BitTorrent and the age-old disagreement between those who think it should be prohibited because it is widely used for illegally distributing copyrighted material, and those who think it should not be prohibited because it has other, legitimate uses.

Android

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Stalkerware... ...or Android, as it's more widely known to the public.

So only corporations are allowed to stalk people? And there I was thinking that 'Murica believes that corporations are people. This is so confusing.

Re:

[Goonie]

Newsflash: two things can be bad at the same time.

If you want

[Jarwulf]

to install a keylogger on a device you own and control it should be your right to. If someone else is dumb enough to use it then tough cookies to them. Big corporations have no business policing how you use your own property or creating software which fights against its owner for SJW nonsense. Installing a keylogger on someone elses property is hacking and there is already plenty of laws covering that unless you are a government or big corporation.

Re:

[Conservative Male]

to install a keylogger on a device you own and control it should be your right to. If someone else is dumb enough to use it then tough cookies to them. Big corporations have no business policing how you use your own property or creating software which fights against its owner for SJW nonsense. Installing a keylogger on someone elses property is hacking and there is already plenty of laws covering that unless you are a government or big corporation.

I think everyone should be aware that like many strong conservative males, Jarwulf is big into cuckoldry. He loves seeing his wife get railed by big black dudes, but like most of us on the right he feels too threatened by them to be present when it happens. This type of software is the only way he can safely observe proceedings from a distance. Any attempt to block these apps could threaten his freedom of sexual expression, as well as preventing him from properly exercising his property rights in regard to

Re:

[Jarwulf]

what does tracking software have to do with liking cuckoldry? I can just as easily say you want to be cuckolded by not keeping track of your wife. Of course your mind wandering to this subject speaks the most.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

The law has already decided this. Is it legal to make one party consent recordings of people? Is it legal to read their private correspondence without permission? If they are a doctor/lawyer potentially talking to a patient/client do confidentiality rules apply?