The apps also help the snoop to hide the surveillance by providing directions to uninstall anything noticeable to the phone’s owner. The app then prompts the person who installed the app to enter their email address and password. The snoop can download the apps from the Google Play Store and install them on the target device. The apps require the snoop to have access to the phone they want to spy on. The apps have been installed a combined 140,000 times, with the most-installed apps being Spy Tracker, and SMS Tracker, both with more than 50,000 installs. The Avast Threat Labs is classifying this as stalkerware/surveillance software because it can access and exfiltrate social media activity of the end-user on Facebook, Messenger, Kik, Skype, Hangouts, among other chat platforms.

The eighth app, Family Employee Monitor (Enterprise Tracking), bills itself as an app for parents to monitor their children, or organizations to manage employees. After Avast reported the apps to Google, the company removed them from its app store.Īvast reported seven of the apps to Google last week, and have subsequently detected an eighth app from a different developer that takes privacy violations even further. Mobile threat researchers at Avast have detected eight apps on the Google Play Store that allow people to stalk employees, romantic partners, or kids.

This post was updated Tuesday, July 23, to add that an eighth stalkerware app, this one from a different developer, was reported by Avast and removed by Google’s Play Store. Eight surveillance apps have been installed a combined 140,000 times

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