The ethics of mobile surveillance apps is not a question that can be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. The short answer is that it can be ethical, depending on how it is used and by whom. The long answer is that in many cases, the ethics involved will depend on the motivation behind why you want to use it and what you intend to do with the data once it’s been collected. Here are three ethical ways to use a mobile surveillance app and reasons why you might choose to use it.

Using mobile surveillance for your children
These days, nearly every child has a phone and every teenager spends most of their time on one. What better way to keep your child safe than through the very thing that allows them to spend most of their time on a private area of their life that you have no access to. One user said “My kids go to school through not so nice streets. Easy Logger tells me where they are at all times so I can rest easy.” This perfectly sums up why a parent would want to use a mobile surveillance app on their child – so they can rest easy. They don’t need to wonder if their child’s phone will allow an adult to try to develop an inappropriate relationship with their child through social media. They don’t need to worry about whether or not their child is taking off from school to “hang” in bad suburbs, or is getting cyber bullied or pressured by their friends to commit dangerous acts. The Easy Logger app will keep parents updated and children located. In an emergency, when your child can’t be reached, the app will help you locate their phone and you can scan the recent activity it’s logged to discover where they are now. It could potentially save the life of your child if anything untoward happens to them.

Using mobile surveillance for company phones
If you experience issues with managing the time your employees spend on work, then Easy Logger is the tool for you. One user said “25 sales staff that are right out of college are a nightmare to manage, especially with all the social networking going on. The logger app shows me who is doing sales and who is sitting in the park chatting on facebook. Priceless!” If you are using company-issued phones, it is up to the company what gets installed on their work tools. You are also paying employees to work – not to leak crucial insider information, not to browse Facebook, and not to job hunt.

Using mobile surveillance on yourself
Another good way to use a mobile surveillance app is to use it on yourself. Did you lose your phone? The app can tell you where it is. Did someone steal your phone and are now racking up bills on your behalf? Use the app to learn more about them, then go to the cops and get their help to track down the suspect. Do you take lots of sales calls and you can’t remember who did you speak to? Go back to your call logs and see who did you call. You can also tell your partner that the app is on your phone, and if they ever need to find you, they can access the phone logs on your behalf.