Senators urged a federal investigation of mobile “stalking apps.” Sens....

The apps allow the user to secretly track someone’s GPS location. More than 26,000 people are victims of GPS stalking each year, said the senators, citing 2006 data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. They said the agencies should “investigate whether the developers and distributors of stalking apps are in compliance with all applicable federal criminal and consumer protection laws.” Many of the apps advertise themselves as a way for parents to keep track of their children, but “their design and marketing suggests that this is an attempt to legitimize an otherwise suspect activity,” the senators said. “We believe that in most cases, stalking apps’ intrusion into victims’ privacy and their potential for abuse will far outweigh any legitimate purpose that these apps may serve.” The Association for Competitive Technology, representing app developers, shares the senators’ concerns about apps made for stalking but the association doesn’t support casting a net that could also capture lawful location-based apps, said ACT Executive Director Morgan Reed in an interview. Law enforcement should not target the “technology” behind the apps but rather the “behavior” with which the apps are used, Reed said. The stalker and not the app used should be punished if, for example, the stalker is using an app designed for parents to legally monitor their children, he said. ACT plans to contact the senators, the FTC and the Justice Department to make its case, he said.