The trend of cell phone monitoring would certainly not be breathing its last anytime soon despite strong protests by privacy advocates. In fact, people from all walks of life, e.g. parents, employers, law enforcement agencies, etc., are increasingly throwing their weight behind monitoring cell phone communications and activities, believing it to be the only viable solution to certain digital threats and nuisances. On the other hand, the naysayers have a completely different take on the matter. They are refusing to acknowledge monitoring tools as anything but a threat to the concept of privacy, thus giving rise to a seemingly never-ending debate.
Monitoring Tech Has Grown Insanely Powerful
Perhaps the privacy advocates do have a point. If you pick any iOS or Android monitoring app at random and take a look at what they’ve become capable of nowadays, you’ll probably want to switch off your cell phone and throw it in a river. Just to give you an idea, here’s a glimpse of features being offered by cell phone monitoring apps nowadays:
- Â Call and surround recording
- Â Call history and contact details
- Â SMS, WhatsApp, Viber, and Skype logging
- Â Email logging
- Â Picture and video logging
- Â Location Tracking via GPS and SMS
- Â List of installed apps
With this kind of access to mobile communications and online activities already available, one can only wonder what future advancements in monitoring tech may bring. The concerns of privacy-conscious people are further intensified by the lack of concrete measures at government level or by providers of cell phone monitoring apps to control and discourage abuse of such powerful tools.
Unfair Criticism on Cell Phone Monitoring Tools
A lot of people, especially the anti-monitoring tech brigade, end up ignoring the fact that cell phone monitoring is evolving simply in response to the market demand. Developers of such tools are compelled to add new and questionable features into their offerings in order to meet the needs and expectations of potential customers. Instead of raising fingers at the advancements in cell phone monitoring tools, critics should focus their efforts on teaching responsible use of such tech, or even better, discourage people from investing in what they deem a massive threat to privacy. ClicheÌd as it may sound, technology is only as good or bad as its user. Use it productively and it will become a blessing, whereas abuse it and it will turn into a deadly weapon.
For One to Survive, The Other Must Die
This may look like an excerpt straight out of the Harry Potter book series, but it perfectly encapsulates the current situation. Maybe it’s time to stop denying the obvious truth – cell phone
monitoring apps and privacy simply can’t coexist. As long as Android and iOS monitoring tools are there, people will continue to use them to safeguard their legitimate interests regardless of how detrimental it may be to the concept of privacy. The only way to prevent that from happening is to impose a ban on such tech, but then that would be akin to giving digital threats and technology abuse a free license to wreak havoc.
For now, it seems that the proponents and opponents of cell phone monitoring will continue to exchange blows without making any significant impact on advancements in monitoring tech or its market. Things will remain just as they are in the foreseeable future, or maybe the market for such tech solutions may expand even further.
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