Study: Saudis are global champions by growing need for monitoring somebody else’s phone in 2020
Apps that allow detecting spyware on your phone were downloaded at least 29.2 thousand times last year, and it’s 104% more compared to the year before
The new study by cybersecurity company NordVPN shows that Saudi Arabia citizens downloaded 104% more applications that are used to monitor device activity last year. At least 29.2 thousand phones or tablets were snooped in 2020. The growing need for such applications has made Saudis the fifth in the global champions list on that account.
“Applications like KidsGuard, mSpy, Sky Phone and Highster are primarily built for parents to monitor activity on their kid’s phones. It allows parents to keep an eye on communications their minors are having online. Sadly, such tools, installed without the owners’ consent, can turn into very powerful spyware to read messages, record screen activity, track GPS locations, and use cameras to see what an individual is doing,” says Daniel Markuson, a digital privacy expert at NordVPN.
Globally, there were 5% more monitoring apps downloaded and it affected over 1,132,262 people across the world.
28% more Saudis were suspicious of being monitored too
People concerned about the possibility of being monitored can easily check if monitoring apps have been installed on their devices by using detectors. It seems that the pandemics and the subsequently enforced intimacy has led to Saudi phone holders being more suspicious about them being watched last year. The research shows that 28% more (7.6 thousand) people downloaded apps that help to detect spyware on their mobile devices compared to the year before.
The rest of the world reacted quite the opposite by acquiring just 16% more spyware detection tools in 2020 compared to the year before.
Where the need to monitor communications was booming?
According to NordVPN’s research the downloads of the monitoring apps from the official app stores were growing the most in Pakistan (308%), Russia (233%), and Vietnam (212%).
“People were extremely willing to take control of what is happening on mobile devices owned by their children or partners,” says Daniel Markuson.
The top 10 countries by average monthly downloads of 4 parental control monitoring apps (Spy Phone, mSpy, KidsGuard, KidsGuard, and Higster) from Apple iStore and Google Play January-December 2020 vs. 2019. Source: NordVPN.
The magnitude of the stalking problem
The U.S.-based National Network to End Domestic Violence found that in 2019 54% of domestic abusers downloaded consumer-grade stalkerware or parental control monitors into their partners’ devices.
“Stalkerware steals the physical and online freedom of the victim. Once the perpetrator knows what it is you were interested in, what secrets you shared with the people you trust, they can gain full control of your life and turn it against you,” says NordVPNs digital privacy expert.
According to Daniel Markuson, there are several ways to safeguard your device from an abusive partner. The simplest one is to secure your device against unauthorized physical access, which will potentially stop the perpetrator from gaining access to your device to install stalkerware in the first place.
“Once your device is password, pattern, or biomimetics protected, use VPN at all times. This would prevent the abuser from eavesdropping on your communications through your network,” he adds.
A critical warning to anyone in an abusive relationship: if you find parental controls or stalkware placed on your device without your consent, you should not remove it because this will almost certainly alert your abuser. Seek professional help.
METHODOLOGY
NordVPN used SensorTower tool to extract the average number of parental control monitoring and stalkware detections application downloads from Apple iStore and Google Play in January-December 2020 and 2019. Apps analyzed: Stalkware (Spy Phone, mSpy, KidsGuard, and Higster), stalkware detectors (AntiSpy & Spyware Scanner, Anti Spy (SpyWare Removal), Anti Spy Mobile Free, Anti Spy Mobile PRO, Anti-spy screen privacy filter, Find My Stalker, Spyware Detector – Anti Spy Privacy Scanner, Spyware Detector – Find Hidden Spy Apps & Malware, Spyware Detector Anti Spyware Scanner, Spyware Jedi).
