Apa itu: Stalkerware

Apa itu Stalkerware

Stalkerware adalah istilah yang umum digunakan, yang menunjukkan perangkat lunak apa pun yang digunakan untuk stalking, yaitu pelacakan orang yang tidak sah, yang sering kali juga tersembunyi.

Stalkerware, Spouseware, Creepware - apa bedanya

Sangat sering, istilah 'stalkerware' digunakan secara sinonim dengan kata-kata seperti 'creepware' dan 'spouseware'. Konsep-konsep ini benar-benar mirip, tetapi memiliki beberapa perbedaan. , seperti namanya, adalah perangkat lunak yang digunakan untuk melacak pasangan. Creepware adalah jenis malware yang dipasang secara diam-diam di komputer atau perangkat digital lainnya tanpa sepengetahuan penggunanya. Memungkinkan untuk memantau aktivitas pengguna dan mengontrol perangkat dari jarak jauh. Dengan demikian, istilah stalkerware dan spouseware benar-benar sama (spouseware adalah kasus khusus dari stalkerware) dan mengindikasikan terutama cara perangkat lunak digunakan, daripada karakteristik dan metode kerjanya. Creepware, dalam giliran, mencirikan metode instalasi dan operasi perangkat lunak ini.

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.