The software allows stalkers to continuously track a person's whereabouts.
But the US Congress's Senate judiciary committee has approved a bill that makes it a crime for companies to make and intentionally operate such stalking apps.
The legislation also would curb the appeal for such inexpensive and easy-to-use programs by requiring companies to disclose their existence on a target's phone.
Stalking and wiretapping already are illegal in the US, but there are no provisions in federal law that clearly prohibit businesses from making an app whose primary purpose is to help one person stalk another.
The legislation would extend the criminal and civil liabilities for the improper use of the apps to include the software companies that sell them.
The proposal would update laws passed years before wireless technology revolutionised communications.
Telephone companies in the US currently are barred from disclosing to businesses the locations of people who make traditional phone calls. But there's no such prohibition when communicating over the internet. If a mobile device sends an email, links to a website or launches an app, the precise location of the phone can be passed to advertisers, marketers and others without the user's permission.
“What's most troubling is this: Our law is not protecting location information,” said Senator Al Franken, chairman of the Senate judiciary subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law.
The ambiguity has created a niche for companies like Retina Software, which makes ePhoneTracker and describes it as “stealth phone spy software.” It's available online for about $50.
“Suspect your spouse is cheating?” the company's website says. “Don't break the bank by hiring a private investigator.”
An emailed statement from Retina Software said the program is for the lawful monitoring of a cellphone that the purchaser of the software owns and has a right to monitor. If there is evidence the customer doesn't own the phone, the account is closed, the company said. The program is not intended or marketed for malicious purposes and doesn't facilitate stalking, the statement said.
But Senator Franken said there is no way to ensure the rules are followed. These programs can be installed in moments, perhaps while the cellphone's actual owner is sleeping or in the shower. The apps operate invisibly to the cellphone's user. They can silently record text messages, call logs, physical locations and visits to websites. All the information is relayed to an email address chosen by the installer.
The legislation includes an exception to the permission requirement for parents who want to place tracking software on the cellphones of minor children without them being aware it is there.
A domestic violence case in Minnesota helped prompt the bill. A woman had entered a county building to meet with her advocate when she received a text message from her abuser asking her why she was there, according to testimony to a congressional hearing on domestic violence.
Frightened, she and her advocate went to the local courthouse to file for a protective order. She got another text demanding to know why she was at the courthouse. They later determined her abuser was tracing her movements with an app that had been placed on her cellphone.
