ePhoneTracker: The next invasion of privacy or ingenious spyware?

On February 23, 2011 Retina Software Private Unlimited company announced the release of the latest mobile phone spyware called ephonetracker. It is advertised as the "World's First Cell Phone Spy Software to Deliver Activity Reports via Email."

According to the press release the software is portrayed as, " a new solution for consumers to investigate activities of smartphones." However, critics of the new software are calling it creepy, invasive, and a new low on privacy invasion.

The ePhoneTracker operates in stealth mode, undetected by the phone. The application can remain undetected by running in the background behind all other applications, including the operating system. Once the ePhoneTracker has been loaded onto the phone, it silently and secretly, records a wide variety of activities and sends a detailed email to the person who is using ePhoneTracker to spy.

According to the website ephonetracker.com, "ePhoneTracker is a hybrid software/service which allows you to monitor your spouse's, child's, or employee's smart phone in real time." Some of the key activites monitored with the ePhoneTracker are:

• all text messages even if logs are deleted
• all incoming and outgoing call numbers and length of calls
• all new and active contact's in phone list
• all web browsing activity, with log of web addresses
• all inbound/outbound emails from the phone's main account
• GPS positioning with map links (user adjusted rate)

A unique feature that is listed on the site is something called the SpyCall feature. Supposedly, you can call the phone that has the ePhoneTracker on it and listen to the surroundings without the phone owner knowing. We have not been able to confirm this feature works.

The ePhoneTracker application is compatible with most smartphones that run the following operating systems: Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Symbian OS 9, or the Windows Mobile 6. The product is available for purchase for $49.97 annual billing.

The ephonetracker application can only be installed two ways: by direct contact with your phone or if you install an app from an untrusted source in a text or email.

So to protect yourself from this type of privacy invasion is fairly simple. Lock your phone. Don't just use the basic lock function that one can unlock by simply using the unlock key. Use a password or passkey that is different then the standard one on the phone. Don't use a number easily guessed either, such as your date of birth or anniversary, etc...

Don't download apps from unknown sources. It's pretty basic, but many people fall victim to this and not just on their phone. Don't download anything that you haven't specifically requested. Even if it doesn't contain the ephonetracker software, the chances of it containing sometime of virus or malware is pretty high.