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Australian Private Investigators Offer Illegal Spouse-Tracking Services

by Warren Riddle on March 10, 2009 at 07:11 AM



Australians worried about cheating spouses also need to be wary of private investigators and Web sites trying to take advantage of their vulnerability. Numerous private investigation firms in Australia are now offering services which include mobile phone monitoring. There's only one problem. It's illegal.

According to the Australian Surveillance Devices Act, private investigators have to obtain their targets' consent in order to track them. Otherwise, they're subject to two years in jail and a $25,000 fine. Since the firms typically offer software that the client uses to personally track his or her spouse, the companies actually forgo liability and the clients assume it. One such company, 'Spousebusters,' provides software compatible with Series 60 (Nokia, LG and Samsung), BlackBerry and Windows devices. Not to be left out of the loop, scam artists are now using the offers as lures to phish for people's cell phone numbers and private information.

In a talk with The Age, Christopher Zinn of the Australian Consumers' Association offered this to people who consider using GPS software to keep tabs on their partner: "It seems to be an abuse of technology which is rightly used in terms of tracking children or older people, not for cheating partners." He continued, "One would suggest that if you had suspicions about your partner, mobile phone tracking services might not be the place to go." What happened to P.I.'s actually getting out and doing a little leg work? Philip Marlowe would be ashamed. [From: Textually.org]

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Tags: gps tracking, gpstracking, infidelity, private investigators, PrivateInvestigators, relationships

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