FTC bans SpyFone and its CEO from surveillance industry News
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FTC bans SpyFone and its CEO from surveillance industry

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Wednesday banned SpyFone and its CEO, Scott Zuckerman, from the surveillance industry and ordered SpyFone to delete users’ stolen data. SpyFone operates a smartphone app that allows users to track the location, internet usage, and other activity on a particular device. The company, which primarily targeted its app at parents for use on their children’s phones, sold access to real-time data to third parties, which the FTC found was often used by stalkers and domestic abusers.

The FTC filed an administrative complaint alleging that SpyFone sold real-time data to third parties, that SpyFone lacked basic security measures that further exposed customers’ data, and that SpyFone collected even more data than they advertised to their users. To collect this data, the company required users to disable key security features on their devices as part of the installation process.

SpyFone entered into a consent agreement with the FTC, which the commission voted 5-0 to accept. The consent agreement requires the company to immediately stop collecting information from devices, to delete all information collected from users within 30 days, and to notify users of the company’s consent agreement with the FTC. SpyFone and Zuckerman are both prohibited from selling any monitoring products or services to consumers permanently. Any remaining or future personal information collected by SpyFone is subject to a strict security program, which will be audited yearly.

This order is a first of its kind—the FTC has never banned a company or an individual from an industry.