Mobile phone spying software 'is illegal'

Programs that spy on people's mobile phone movements are almost always illegal, a legal expert has said.

Sue Cullen of lawyer Pinsent Masons says that the programs, which have received recent coverage in the media, are almost certain to break the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).

When a mobile phone is on, it is always searching for the nearest transmitters so it can pick up a signal and connect to the network. Programs such as Flexispy and others allow users, at a basic level, to track the movements of the phone by figuring out which network transmitters, or cells, it connects to.

The program must be installed on the target phone, so using it requires access to the phone in the first place. It is thought to have been used by husbands and wives to track those suspected of cheating.

Once the program is installed, the user can log in to a website with a password and see the data relating to the phone.

The latest version of the software even allows the remote user to switch on the phone's microphone and listen in to the phone's surroundings.

Even with the permission of the owner of the phone, anyone using the software would still be breaking the law, Cullen said, because the law requires both parties in a phone call to have consented to being bugged.

There is, however, no law banning the software's sale in Britain. Flexispy and other spying programs have been designated as 'harmful' by anti-virus firm F-Secure.

Richard Hales, UK country manager for F-Secure, told Computeractive that it would support a ban on the program's sale. He said: "The ability to install spyware on these phones is not something that should be allowed."