Don’t Touch My Phone
“Don’t touch my phone” is a line uttered by teenagers around the globe. But what if one could gather all the knowledge one needs from someone else’s device without physically interacting with it? There are now applications, or “apps,” that allow people to track others’ phones and even intercept text messages.
This new capability is especially attractive to those parents who feel driven to extreme measures when it comes to ensuring their children’s safety. Parents can use these kind of applications to see where their children are (or at least where their phone is) at any given time.
Similarly, Facebook now has a ‘find friends nearby’ feature that gives one the exact location of one’s Facebook friends who have enabled the feature. There is also a friend-finding app that is based on people’s contact lists. A man used one such app, called “Find My Friends,” to catch his wife cheating with another man. He said, "I got my wife a new 4S and loaded up find my friends without her knowing. She told me she was at her friend’s house in the east village. I've had suspicions about her meeting this guy who lives uptown. Lo and behold, Find my Friends has her right there."
Other current apps also allow for the interception of text messages. The Spy app, when downloaded on a device, intercepts any text message or email that is sent from the device. Some parents use this app to make sure that their children are not writing about drug or alcohol use, involved in sexual relationships, or otherwise engaged in behavior the parents find objectionable.
