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The head of a Pakistani company which created an app called StealthGenie allowing users to spy on other people's mobile devices was indicted on US criminal charges, officials said Monday.
The Justice Department said the indictment of Hammad Akbar, 31, of Lahore, Pakistan, is the first-ever criminal case concerning the advertisement and sale of a mobile device spyware app.
Akbar is chief executive of InvoCode Pvt Ltd, which advertises and sells StealthGenie online and which uses a data center based in Virginia.
The app enables the monitoring of voice calls and chats on mobile devices such as the Apple iPhone and Android handsets.
According to officials the business plan of the group was to market the app to people who suspected cheating by a spouse or partner.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PinkyGigglebrain on Tuesday September 30 2014, @06:08PM
It doesn't sound like this guy was a criminal before the indictment, just a business man with a plan to sell software.
This might just be the US government trying to keep the general population from really thinking about how easy it is to spy on a cell phone.
Consider this, most people don't worry about the US governments ability to spy on them because they don't think they are interesting enough to be spied on by the government or they just don't care that some faceless pleb they will never meet knows they are screwing the bosses wife. But with this app they would have to worry about the girlfriend they are cheating on or the creepy guy in the next cubicle being able to monitor them.
When it gets personal people start paying more attention and taking action, like using encrypted phones, that would also make it hard for the government to monitor everyone without a warrant.
Like the old saying goes, the reason the government hates organized crime is because they hate the competition.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."