Senator Al Franken knows that a parents dream has become a battered woman’s nightmare.
Al Franken
Mobile phone tracking apps, marketed as a way parents can know where their children really are is being used instead by domestic abusers as a way to stalk their victims.
In the post 10 Best Apps for Paranoid Parents, author Brett Singer sells the benefits of these apps.
Ever wish you could know where your child is, all the time? Using GPS in real time, this app helps you keep track of and automatically locate where your child goes with his phone. If he’s traveling alone, you can confirm that he arrived at a specific destination, or if he’s meeting up with friends, they can confirm each other’s locations. Location info is never shared with anyone else beyond those who have permission to see it, and data is saved for later review. Even though the app is free, parents will need to purchase a subscription for the tracking feature.
Now, imagine that you are a person convinced that your partner is cheating on you. Or that you’re a jilted lover who cannot get the other out of your mind, and might wish to confront him or her alone?
The same apps marketed for parents can be used to fuel your obsession.
Stuart Smalley
How creepy is this?
In response, Franken has proposed the Location Privacy Protection Act of 2014, and tells about a domestic violence victim who was at the court house seeking an order of protection, only to receive a text from her abuser asking why she was in court.
If the bill is approved, it would be a violation for a person to install the app without the permission of the phone owner, and the app company would also be in violation.
The tracking apps have been installed secretly not just by perpetrators of domestic violence, but by first-time dates who’ve been granted access to their date’s smart phone.
The way I see it, there are two takeaways.
1) Password protect your smart phone and don’t grant others access to it. Don’t leave it unattended on a first date any more than you’d leave a drink unattended.
2) Al Franken is as clever a senator as he was on Saturday Night Live as Stuart Smalley.