 | The examples and perspective in this articledeal primarily with the United States and do not represent aworldwide view of the subject. You mayimprove this article, discuss the issue on thetalk page, orcreate a new article, as appropriate.(February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Phone surveillance is the act of performingsurveillance on phone conversations,location tracking, and data monitoring of a phone. Before the era ofmobile phones, these used to refer to the tapping of phone lines via a method calledwiretapping. Wiretapping has now been replaced bysoftware that monitors the cell phones of users.
While mobile phone surveillance has been carried out by large organizations for a long time (e.g., to find clues of illegal activities), more and more of such surveillance is now carried out by individuals for personal reasons. For example, a parent may become a "text spy" to monitor a child's texting activity. This brings in the moral, ethical and legal question of who owns people'sprivacy.
According to a 2007American Management Association report, computer monitoring takes form ranges from keyboard(45%), files(43%), blogosphere(12%) to social networking sites(10%).[1] No newer data is available on the number of phone surveillance carried out currently.
The global phone tracking application market size was valued at around $0.17 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow at aCAGR of around 12.3% until 2032.[2]
Phone surveillance is now more commonly carried out on cell phones. This has become increasingly easy with the availability of cell phone monitoring software. These types of software are easily purchased over theinternet and can be quickly installed on phones. There have been questions as to whether this software is illegal; software makers may show adisclaimer that they do not endorse any illegal activities.
The law has yet to set a clear boundary on who can or who cannot do phone surveillance. A 2005 federal court ruling denies theFBI from tracking cellphone locations of people who have not committed any crimes.[3]
An arm of the U.S. military, the United StatesDefense Intelligence Agency (DIA), has been tracking the location of Americans by searching through databases that it purchases frommobile phone companies. The phone companies routinely collect and store their customers' cellular telephone location data when the customers use certain software applications. Additional government agencies that use such tactics to track people and arrest them include theU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement andUnited States Customs and Border Protection.[4]
