Gotcha! This mobile application is a real 'net'work

A group of retired police officers and a few young professionals have come together to start a new civilian venture, a mobile application www.mobicid.com. The application allows a person to track any person using a smartphone.

By paying an amount, the application allows a person to track and monitor a person’s calls, photos and videos.

The group claims that the application can be used by parents, spouses and employees for ‘improvement’ of conduct.

However, legal experts and teenagers are against this application as their “privacy may be hugely compromised”. On the other hand, application developers say that the “right to privacy” isn’t defined by law yet.

Former cop Sachin Waze, who also was an encounter specialist, is the brain behind the website. Former deputy superintendent of police Shirish Thorat is the grievance officer.

Speaking to dna, Waze said that the idea was a twin purpose of security and ‘improvement of conduct’.

Security
“The application has a feature that can enable you to know the last tracked GPS location and the travelled route of monitored phone on a map. The last made phone calls, messages can also be viewed. Hence if there is any problem over security, like a child or spouse who is not traceable, this application can assist the parent or spouse to track the person,” said Waze.

Improvement of conduct
The other use of this application is improvement of conduct. The application enables client to mark ‘prohibited’ and ‘safe’ areas on a map and the client can track the location history to know which places the user has visited.
“Besides, chat conversations can be monitored, text and multimedia messages tracked as well as access to all videos, photos and audio files saved on the monitored phone. It will enable the client to know all good and unwanted activity of tracked phone allowing for improvement,” added Waze. 

Misuse of access
However, this technology may be a double-edged sword since it can allow for misuse as well, allowing an unwanted person complete control of someone’s personal details. Asked on how the team plans to counter this, he said that there is no control over how the information that may be used, as the team cannot judge the intention of the client.

However they are taking certain legal precautions. “It’s like selling a knife, it may be used for cutting onions or murder, but the seller is not to be held for the offence. We have completed all legal formalities under Information Technology Act. The only problem is how information provided is used and for that we are giving an undertaking that the person will not misuse it. As far as right to privacy goes, it isn’t defined in any law and hence providing such details for a fee isn’t a legal offence. And each one has their own moral code so we are no judge for that,” said Waze.

He added, “The person wishing to keep a track should have either a physical or virtual access to the cellphone.”

Breach of privacy?
Meanwhile advocates say that ‘privacy’ is probably the most overused and the least enforced word in India .

“When it comes to protection of personal privacy including personal data, India as a culture was always oblivious to it. Does the law protect personal privacy in India? In a way, yes. Art 21 of the constitution and also the IT Act 2000 makes unauthorised access to data a congnizable offence. IT Act 2000 further protects sensitive personal information from unauthorised disclosure thereby casting a duty on banks and financial institutions and hospitals to protect our financial information and health records. Thus the act also prohibits a husband or a wife from snooping on the data of the spouse regardless of whatever ‘reasonable reason ‘ the spouse may have . The same logic may not apply to employers who can access employee data on the company’s computers or an over zealous parent keeping a tab on his/her underage child,” he added.