Fighting the Trend Towards Personal Internet Espionage

The Internet makes possible some really wonderful monitoring technology, but monitoring tools are truly double edged swords.

Human rights around the world are built on the ethical principle we typically call the golden rule. Our right to privacy is a core element in this. You would be outraged to discover that someone is spying, tracking, or documenting every word you type or is sent to you, every website you visit, every place you travel to. Yet people are doing this to others every day.  You should consider the very real possibility that you are under surveillance by someone.

Millions of people are applying spy technologies, but few want to be on the receiving end of them.  Which begs the question - Where is the dividing line between ‘protective’ uses of such tools and abuse? How far are we willing to go in eroding personal rights to privacy? Two recent articles, Tell-All PCs and Phones Transforming Divorce and Is Anything Private Anymore? provide food for thought.

In this post 9/11 world we have steadily watched the erosion of individual privacy under the justification of increased “safety”.  Yet privacy is foundational to safety. Are we making the right tradeoffs at a national, local, and personal level? Make no mistake; if you justify the right to abuse the privacy of one person, it erodes the right to privacy of society as a whole. In the name of safety are we hurtling ourselves towards Orwell’s world of 1984 where Big Brother (or big business, or big bully) scrutinizes every move and thought we have?

Just because tools are available to allow one person to stalk, monitor, spy, or track, another does not make it acceptable.   We can always justify the action – embedding location chips in everyone would mean that Alzheimer’s patients, kidnapped children, lost hikers, or anyone in an accident could be found; tracking where everyone goes on the web could help identify those in need of emotional support, or intending to commit crimes; watching communications between people would help stop scams against older people, alert us to sexual predators grooming children, etc. But at what cost? While protecting the people identified in the ‘good’ scenarios how much abuse is enabled?

Critical to these scenarios remaining ‘good’ is active consent and knowledge. For example when the hiker chooses to take a location beaconing tool with him or knows that it is a requirement to have a location beacon with them when they hike in a specific area and chooses to hike there. 
If the action is taken in stealth the border is crossed and the risks of abuse run too high to be acceptable.

There seems to be some blatant hypocrisy in our approach to using espionage tools. We know they are abusive if they are applied to us, but many feel quite comfortable applying them to other adults if we suspect them of cheating on us, or feel we have been spurned in some way.

There also seems to be no qualms about applying surveillance tools against minors. That as long as ‘parental control’ companies claim their services are designed to ‘protect children’ that anything they choose to sell is acceptable.

But it is time to establish a clear distinction between protecting children on the Internet and conducting full-scale espionage against minors – or anyone else someone cares to track.

The names alone of some ‘safety’ products should give reason for pause; even more disturbing are the features they market as virtues:

• IamBigBrother runs in total secrecy, and is very hard to find” … will monitor your children [or anyone else you choose to monitor] in Instant Messages, Chats, Emails, Web Site URLs and much more while undetected from the user… Not only do you see what your child types online but what is said back as well. It monitors both incoming and outgoing activity!
• SniperSpy - The software can be installed from any Internet location by sending an email attachment which contains a module. When the module is run by the remote user, the software silently installs... This program records a wide array of PC activities in real time. All activity is secretly and temporarily recorded to the PC and then uploaded to your online account
• Spector Pro - … has been making Internet Spying Software for Parents and Spouses since 1998 …Perhaps your child is having chat conversations with friends at school and they are planning to buy drugs. Or even worse, chatting about the drugs they are using. How would you know if that was happening without Internet spying software?
• ParentalSoftware.org - Spying on your family made easy!... can be shipped to you on CD in a plain wrapper AND downloaded.
• PC Tattletale - let's parents monitor all of their children's on and offline computer activity…Without Internet Monitoring Software & Parental Control Software You'll Never Know What They do Online!

Frankly, there should be Internet safety (and ethical) warnings against these products. These have features that represent some of the ugliest elements of privacy invasion.  Don’t justify their use with the notion that these are only used by ‘good’ parents tracking ‘troubled’ teens.  

Consider that between 80 and 90 percent of the sexual abuse of minors is by a family member or care taker, and approximately 1.5 million women and 835,000 men are raped and/or physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States. These ‘protective’ tools give predators the ultimate weapons, they can spy on any attempt to get help, track a victims every location and move, and monitor every conversation for vulnerabilities.  

Stealth tracking destroys trust, that most valuable of human connections. It also begins or escalates the cat and mouse game of sneaking – those tracked sneak to avoid detection, the trackers then use more tools to spy on their targets, who then work harder at avoiding detection in a vicious cycle.

When there is a reason for concern, issues should be openly discussed and boundaries established. This level of monitoring of anyone is abusive. Having appropriate family safety tools that are transparent to all is the only acceptable form of monitoring. 

Tracking the abuse of Parental Control tools for many years when working in Microsoft’s MSN Division made me determined that the latest version for MSN/Windows Live would not allow stealth.  Husbands and wives really do track their spouses, ex’s track their old partners, children track their parents, business managers track employees, etc.

There was certainly discussion on changing to a transparent model, but I am proud of my contribution to ensuring the Family Safety tools in MSN were built on the principle of transparency.

Whether or not minors agree to the boundaries families set, they should know what the boundaries are – at home, at school, at the library and so on, and know if they will be monitored, how they will be monitored, why there is monitoring, and what the consequences of unsafe online behavior will be.  

Finding the balance between supervision and independence for youth is not easy because there is no one-size-fits-all answer. But, how you choose to approach supervision will play a critical role in whether or not young people buy into your safety plan and whether it helps build or erode the trust between you. To learn more, read my blog article Why ‘Parental Controls’ Won’t Work, but Family Safety does.

Linda