FTC Upholds Ban On Stalkerware Feundware Scott Zuckerman

A stalkerware Makers banned from the surveillance industry after a data breach that exposed customers’ personal information, as well as those they spied on, cannot return to sell invasive software, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC rejected a request to overturn a ban created by Scott Zuckerman, the founder of a consumer spyware company that supports King and his subsidiaries.

On Monday, the FTC announced the rejection in a press release After zuckerman Pinitioned THE Federal Watchdog to Rescind or Modify Ban Order in July of this year.

In 2021, FTC banned zuckerman From “Offering, promoting, selling, or advertising surveillance applications, services, or businesses,” effectively preventing them from running other stalkerware businesses. The agency also ordered zuckerman to delete all data collected by spyfone, as well as to receive frequent audits and establish certain cyberked practices for businesses.

“SpyFone is a low-key brand name for a surveillance business that helps stalkers steal personal information,” said Samuel Levine, then the FTC’s acting director of FTC Consumer Protection. “Stalkerware is hidden from device owners, but it has ended with hackers exploiting the company’s Slipshod Slipshod security.”

In his petitionZuckerman claims that the FTC’s security requirements are intended to make it more difficult for him to conduct financial business, even with restaurants and planned “tourism ventures” in Puerto Rico, according to the petition.

When reached by email, Zuckerman declined to comment and referred questions to his attorney.

The ftc ban was formed from an incident in 2018, when Security researchers discovered Amazon’s S3 bucket as a spyfone That leaves very sensitive data – including Selfies, Text Messages, App Chat Messages, Contacts, Contacts, Locations, and more – shared online for anyone to see and access.

The exposed data included 44,109 unique email addresses and, according to the researchers who discovered the breach, “at least 2,208 subscribers and thousands of phone calls and phone audio have been embedded.

Less than a year after the FTC’s 2021 order, TechCrunch reports Zuckerman appears to run another company stalkerware. In 2022, TechCrunch received a data breach from the stalkerware app spytrac. The data revealed that spytrac was killed by a freelance developer with direct ties to support King, in what appears to be an attempt to circumvent the FTC ban. Furthermore, the breached data included records from SpyFone, which Zuckerman was ordered to delete, and keys to access the cloud storage of oneClickmarmonitor, another tenter app.

Eva Galperin, a renowned expert on stalkerware, celebrated the news. “Zuckerman clearly hopes that in a few years, everyone will forget about the reason why the FTC issued a ban not only against the company,” said Special Techcrunch.

TechCrunch’s revelation in 2022 that Zuckerman appeared to be in violation of the FTC’s ban, “suggests that Zuckerman,” added Tumpur, “adek cyribersin in digital Digital rights.

Stalkerware apps allow customers to spy on the phones and devices of their loved ones. In addition to enabling illegal activities, in the past eight years, at least 26 stalkerware companies have hacked or compromised sensitive data According to TechCrunch’s tally tallySee rank-. This incident shows that this company has repeatedly failed to protect the privacy of its customers, as well as those who watched it.