Electronic surveillance

New leak exposes shady world of ‘Stalkerware’ surveillance software

Monitoring software FlexiSPY, marketed at paranoid partners attempting to catch their other halves cheating, may have been provided to governments in countries including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain according to a new leak.

Documents leaked to Motherboard, allegedly sourced from inside the organization, show the extent of FlexiSPY’s use and profitability.

The controversial software, built by a small company based in Thailand and described as “Stalkerware” may have been used in another piece of software built by British-German surveillance company Gamma, according to a 2011 document within the leak, cited by Motherboard.

The document described staff from FlexiSPY as assisting Gamma staff with the installation of the software ‘Cyclops,’ used on Gamma’s own surveillance program known as FinSpy.

Gamma was found to have sold FinSpy to the Bahraini government in 2012. While in 2015, evidence was found to show its use by governments in countries including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.