What is:Stalkerware/zh

什么是Stalkerware

Stalkerware是常用术语，表示用于纏擾，即未经授权的人员跟踪，通常也是秘密的。

跟踪软件，配偶软件，蠕变软件-有什么区别

很多时候，术语“缠扰者软件”与“creepware”和“spouseware””等词同义使用。这些概念确实相似，但有一些区别。顾名思义，它是一种用于跟踪配偶的软件。蠕变软件是恶意软件的一种，它在用户不知情的情况下秘密安装在计算机或其他数字设备上。它允许监视用户活动并远程控制设备，因此，术语“跟踪软件”和“配偶软件”实际上是同义词（“欺骗软件”是跟踪软件的特例），并且主要表示软件的使用方式，而不是其特性和工作方法。接下来，介绍该软件的安装和操作方法。

Stalkerware and monitoring software

There are 3 main scenarios for using monitoring software:

• Installing monitoring software on your own devices in order to monitor them; other people who use these devices are informed about such monitoring;
• Installing monitoring software on your own devices in order to monitor them; other people who use these devices are not informed about such monitoring;
• Installing monitoring software on other people's devices in order to monitor them, without knowledge of the devices’ owners.

When it comes to stalkerware, the last option is most often implied — when the stalker, even after gaining short-term physical access to the victim’s device, covertly installs spyware on it, thereby gaining access to information about all future activity on the monitored device, without the victim's knowledge. In most countries (jurisdictions) such use of software is illegal. The term 'stalkerware' itself appeared precisely because of the cases when legal monitoring software was used to track intimate partners and spouses without their knowledge.

Use of the term

The problem with using the term 'stalkerware' is that many experts and journalists, when using it, don’t mean software that was used for illegal / unethical purposes – they mean any software that could even potentially be used in this way. Sometimes any monitoring software is called stalkerware.

For example, the Coalition Against Stalkerware, an association of cybersecurity companies, offers the following definition of the term 'stalkerware': "It is software, made available directly to individuals, that enables a remote user to monitor the activities on another user's device without that user's consent and without explicit, persistent notification to that user in order to intentionally or unintentionally facilitate intimate partner surveillance, harassment, abuse, stalking, and/or violence." So, any monitoring software that can work covertly falls under this definition, no matter what purpose it is used for.