[sqeaky]

This is going to earn me huge downvotes, but not all surveillance is equally illegal or equally unethical.

To me it seems that groups that run spy satellites and look out for nuclear missile launches are in a different ethical category than people who make software for perpetuating domestic abuse.

Clearly, I picked two extremes. That was just to show that not all surveillance is equally bad and that some can be better than others. I will leave other kinds of surveillance are just and unjust for other discussion.

[nvahalik]

> people who make software for perpetuating domestic abuse

That's a bit like saying the authors of Wordpress perpetuate fake news.

I've used similar products to monitor usages on teenager's devices and I can attest to their usefulness far beyond "perpetuating domestic abuse".

[sqeaky]

The makers of wordpress don't say "great for fake news", but the makers of this software say "great for watching your partner".

They advertise reading your wife's SMS messages as a feature!

That and Wordpress would only be so-so for making a fake news page, I mean it could work but you would be a competitive disadvantage.

[Houshalter]

They literally make tools to spy on people without their knowledge. How is there any situation where that is ok outside of law enforcement? Parents monitoring their kids don't need to be secret about it.

(And to be honest even that sounds super creepy. I thank god my parents didn't know my complete internet history and track my every movement 24/7. I can only imagine the helicopter parenting horrors that modern technology is enabling.)

Hell this software goes well beyond that. It records every text, every phone call, every keypress, hijacks the webcam and microphone to secretly record them, etc.

It's extremely common for domestic abusers to use this. I'm having trouble finding it, but I recall in article on HN that domestic abuse shelters are requiring victims to turn off their phones because it's become a problem.