Blog Dope

Mobile / cell phone tracking services are proliferating but using them to track a cheating partner may actually be illegal. Australian telecom provider, Telstra, launched a  mobile phone tracking service called Whereis Everyone and says more than 40,000 people have signed up to it since it was launched last July but makes the claim it is only being used by customers wanting to keep in touch with family and friends. Of course this service is wide open to abuse and is only the tip of the iceberg.

In order not to overstep the mark into illegal spying the ‘target’ had to give their consent before being tracked. Under the Australian Surveillance Devices Act, anyone caught using tracking devices or spy cameras without consent faces a maximum penalty of two years’ jail and a $26,429 fine. This hasn’t stopped shonky operators from advertising on TV that you can simply track a cheating spouse by installing a small bit of software on their phone and monitor their every move.

After installing the software, mobile phone monitoring secretly records events that happen on the phone and delivers this information to a web account, where you can view these reports from any internet-enabled computer or mobile phone. It also allows you to listen to the surroundings of the target mobile, listen to the phone conversation and to know the actual location of the mobile phone.

Of course the companies providing these services remove themselves from all responsibility. They are well aware that people do monitor their partner’s phones to confirm if they are cheating, but also state that nobody has gotten in trouble for it. According to a company spokesman it’s usually between a husband and wife and the person who’s caught cheating realizes they’ve done the wrong thing and it doesn’t go any further.

How far would you go to catch out a partner suspected of cheating?