An app which was removed from the Google Play store called the Boyfriend Tracker reportedly received thousands of downloads from jealous girlfriends in Brazil.
The app, called “Rastreador de Namorados” (Portuguese for Boyfriend Tracker), promises to act like a “private detective in your partner’s pocket.”
Functions include sending the person doing the tracking updates on their partner’s location and forwarding duplicates of text message traffic from the targeted phone. There is even a command that allows a user to force the target phone to silently call their own, like a pocket dial, so they can listen in on what the person is saying.
Matheus Grijo, a 24-year-old Sao Paulo-based developer behind Boyfriend Tracker, says it has attracted around 50,000 users since its launch about two months ago, most since the site began attracting media attention two weeks ago.
To install Boyfriend Tracker, suspicious partners have to get their hands on their loved one’s smartphones and upload the app. A free version leaves the app’s icon visible on the target’s phone, while a version that costs $2 a month masks the icon. Grijo said the app began as a joke between him and his girlfriend but the idea quickly caught on among their friends.
“In Brazil, we have this culture of switching partners really quickly, so this is a way of dealing with that,” said Grijo.
Would you be comfortable putting this on the phone of someone you are dating?
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