Why Did StealthGenie Get Busted By The Feds?

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Why Did StealthGenie Get Busted By The Feds?

As a result of the StealthGenie site being shutdown, we have had a flood of people asking if FlexiSPY is next.

We want to reassure our customers that we will not suffer StealthGenie’s fate for the reasons described below. Also, if you are a StealthGenie customer, you may find this interesting.

Background

The mobile monitoring industry was rocked the 27th September 2014, when a temporary restraining order, granted by a US Judge took the StealthGenie website offline. The arrest the following day of Hammed Akbar at Los Angeles Airport under an indictment of charges of manufacturing, selling and advertising a “surreptitious interception device” was then made public.

There are many questions raised by the StealthGenie case, but the one of most concern to the mobile device monitoring industry is, “Could this happen to us?”, and “How do we stay legal?”

Location, Location, Location …

The answer to this can be found by looking at point 6 of the legal complaint that was presented to the court.

“Defendant is subject to the personal jurisdiction of this Court, having sold and advertised StealthGenie using a computer server located at an Amazon Web Services, Inc. data center located in Ashbum, Virginia, which is in the Eastern District of Virginia.”

In other words, because StealthGenie were using Amazon Web Servers that were located in the USA, they were breaking US laws, and thus the Feds can credibly claim that there is a crime being carried out in their territory.

This is no surprise to anyone who has been following how the USA operates internationally in a post 911 world. Any business knows that having even the smallest US footprint, will most likely allow the USA to claim jurisdiction – should they wish to do so.

Which is why StealthGenies decision to use Amazon Web Services is so perplexing.

The answer for businesses is clear. If you do not want to be subject to US laws, then do not use the services of any supplier that is under the jurisdiction of the USA.

In other words, have a zero US footprint in your business.

Don’t Wake The Giant

Regardless of the legality of what StealthGenie were doing, the Feds have a duty to investigate complaints about what happens on their patch. Whether the law is fair, or if it was actually broken are questions for another time and place.

We respect the USA, its laws, and its enforcement agencies and we make sure we stay out of their way by not having a US footprint. This is why FlexiSPY does not use servers in the USA or the services of any USA supplier, and FlexiSPY Ltd is not a USA company. There are no US laws being broken and we respectfully state that we believe that we are not under the jurisdictions of the USA.

If any legal minds out there have a different opinion, please let the world know by leaving a comment below. (Comments from the FED particularly welcome. )

Comments

40 responses to “Why Did StealthGenie Get Busted By The Feds?”

October 7, 2014

Lilya

Have you thought about payment system? are you by any chance using a payment system located in the “West” if so…problems could arise soon

Reply
1. October 8, 2014
  
  FlexiSPYBlog
  
  Hi Lilya, thanks for the question!
  
  We have a myriad of trusted payment providers –none of which are headquartered in the USA- integrated into our eCommerce system. While this lets us assure that there’s always a way to purchase FlexiSPY no matter which country you might be in, it also benefits our customers by allowing us to offer tax-free shopping, which you can read more about here – http://blog.flexispy.com/bringing-democracy-to-ecommerce-taxation/
  
  Reply
October 13, 2014

Theodore Pike

So where are your servers exactly, and where is your business based? Your yearly plans are a very expensive risk if the country you are based in decides to follow suit.

Reply
1. October 14, 2014
  
  FlexiSPYBlog
  
  Hi Theodore,
  
  To answer your first question, our servers are distributed across a variety of non USA locations. While we don’t publish the locations, it’s a simple matter to use well known IP tools to get the location of any server that you connect to.
  
  As for your second question, please note that our PREMIUM product is more powerful than any other competitor, and at 149 USD, also cheaper. Our EXTREME product is for specialist use, and offers features that are truly not available anywhere else.
  
  Reply
  1. October 14, 2014
    
    Theodore Pike
    
    Thank you for the reply. I have no problem with the actual yearly cost per say, it’s having to pay for the full year in one go, especially as you could also be targeted or maybe remove features from your app (like mspy have done with call recording). Also I do not have access to my target phone very often, so I would also need to be sure that once installed any further updates you do to your app are backwards compatible so that I can leave an older version on my phone without having to update it. I am actually very interested in joining you, as a previous Stealthgenie customer I was very impressed with it’s performance (mspy was rubbish). A chance to try your app for a month would have been preferable than having to join for the full year.
    
    Reply
    1. October 14, 2014
      
      FlexiSPYBlog
      
      Hey Theodore,
      glad to help!
      
      If you are a StealthGenie customer, we have a trade in program which will credit you 50% off your FlexiSPY purchase of EXTREME or PREMIUM if you provide our live-chat with your StealthGenie license. You can read more about that program, here – http://blog.flexispy.com/stealthgenie-website-offline-help/
      
      As we are not under USA jurisdiction, we don’t plan on removing any features from our program as mSpy has done.
      
      We offer a 24hr free trial where you can test out FlexiSPY to see if it fits your needs. However we also include a 10 day, no qualm, money back guarantee with all our software. So that’s essentially a 10 day trial in itself.
      
      As for your question about our software updating, when we make an update to FlexiSPY, you’re able to upgrade to that latest version without having to access the target phone again, through the FlexiSPY portal.
      
      Reply
      1. October 14, 2014
        
        Theodore Pike
        
        I made the mistake with mspy, 10 days wasn’t long enough to test it’s reliability, which is why I would have preferred an option to try your services for a month before committing the costs for a year. Anyway, I’m still interested. That last point though, are you saying that your app is able to automatically update itself without me having access to the target device? I didn’t think that was possible. If so, does the user get any notifications at all that gives it away?
      2. October 15, 2014
        
        FlexiSPYBlog
        
        Hi Theodore,
        
        If there’s an update to our software available, then next time you log into your FlexiSPY dashboard you’ll see a notification saying that there’s an update available. You then click the update button and our app will remotely update itself : )
      3. October 16, 2014
        
        Theodore Pike
        
        That’s very impressive, and the user will not see anything?
      4. October 17, 2014
        
        FlexiSPYBlog
        
        Hi Theodore!
        
        Our developers will be happy to know about your compliment!
        
        To answer your question, the app hides all traces of the updating process as it’s occurring, and after.
October 16, 2014

juliet

When do you think Flexispy will come up with software compatible with Android 5.0 on the google nexus.
I am hesitant because i know you guys don’t delay on start date. Will you guys give an extension of service (until the update for flexispy is available?)

Reply
1. October 16, 2014
  
  FlexiSPYBlog
  
  Hi Juliet,
  
  You’re correct that your time period starts as soon as you purchase a FlexiSPY
  license.
  
  In regards to your Android 5.0 question, as of now we aren’t able to work
  on it as there’s no real release of 5.0 out, just a preview version. Our developers
  will and have always immediately started work on making FlexiSPY compatible with 5.0 as
  soon as the real version is released.
  
  Reply
  1. October 17, 2014
    
    Juliet
    
    Thank you for your reply.
    
    I plan to trade in my Stealth genie license next week for flexispy.
    As per my question though, Will there be a extension of service for the time that after 5.0 upgrade where flexispy does not have the compatible software?
    
    Reply
    1. October 17, 2014
      
      FlexiSPYBlog
      
      Hey Juliet,
      
      if your phone becomes incompatible after trading up to FlexiSPY
      just talk with our live-chat and reference this comment. While it’s normally not something we do, we’ll pause your subscription period until it becomes
      compatible again 🙂
      
      Hope that helps!
      – Dakota
      
      Reply
      1. October 19, 2014
        
        Juliet
        
        Thank you Dakota! That is much appreciated!
        
        Lastly, how long do you think Flexispy will take to roll out a version that is compatible with Android 5.0? i know its a hard question, but a rough estimate is good to let me know how long i will be without a software.
      2. October 19, 2014
        
        FlexiSPYBlog
        
        Hi Juliet,
        
        Rather than just try to take a guess to satisfy your question -we at FlexiSPY also share your question- all we can say is that we’ll be able to give you a more concrete answer within a week after the root is released, and we’ll make sure to update you personally once we have a more definite answer.
      3. November 20, 2014
        
        Juliet
        
        Hello,
        
        I have joined Flexispy a couple weeks ago finally! thank you for your input.
        however, just a couple days ago the device got auto updated to Android 5.0
        and is no longer tracking. Can you get back to me now on the “when” will flexispy be compatible?
        you can reach me here or with my email address provided. thank you!
      4. November 20, 2014
        
        FlexiSPYBlog
        
        Hi Juliet,
        
        Could you tell me the name of the phone that was upgraded to 5.0?
        
        I’ll check up on the progress with our development team.
        
        Best,
        Dakota
      5. November 23, 2014
        
        Juliet
        
        Hi Dakota
        
        The phone is a nexus 5
        
        Thanks
        Juliet
      6. November 28, 2014
        
        Juliet
        
        Hello,
        
        As per you said, i referenced the earlier comment to suspend my subscription until the compatible software is released but to my surprise i was not given the option to “suspend or extend my subscription”.
        
        This is a alias name that i am using for privacy purpose but i am quite furious that i am not given that option. seeing that i was a SG customer, i got the discount. the only option offered to me by the Support team was a refund, which means that i would not be able to get the 50% off discount later even though the software being incompatible isn’t my fault
        
        Is there any way to solve this since i was promised a “suspension of service” ?
        
        Thanks
        
        Juliet
      7. November 28, 2014
        
        FlexiSPYBlog
        
        Hi Juliet,
        
        Sincerest apologies for the mix-up on my part.
        
        I incorrectly told you that I could have your subscription “paused”
        
        What we can do for you instead is give you the lost time back on your subscription when our software becomes compatible with your device!
        
        So, once it’s compatible, we’ll add the time lost onto your subscription 🙂
        
        P.S. I’ll keep you updated on the matter personally via your registered email address.
        
        Best Regards,
        – Dakota
      8. December 14, 2014
        
        Mabel
        
        Hi Juliet,
        Glad to find out that there’s an SG customer here!
        I have been considering using this app for some days but quite worry about the jailbreak I need to do on the target phone and how well/stealth it works. As I’m not a computer genius and worry that while going thru the process I might cause more problems to the target phone, a new iPhone 6. Do you mind to provide some of your experience here?
        Many thanks!
      9. December 16, 2014
        
        FlexiSPYBlog
        
        Hello Mabel.
        
        Installing FlexiSPY is very simple. After purchase you simply log in to your online account on your computer with the TARGET device in hand and follow the step by step instructions that appear directly on the TARGET device to download, install and activate the software on to the device.
        
        When it comes to jailbreaking, FlexiSPY, unlike its competitors, also helps with this. You can find jailbreaking information and videos on how to do it at the link below.
        
        http://www.spyphonereview.com/spy-phone-review-jailbreak-iphone/
        
        Thanks for contacting us.
October 16, 2014

Mike

Do u have a 50% discount for people that no longer wanna use mobile spy since they decided to no longer make it stealth?

Reply
1. October 17, 2014
  
  FlexiSPYBlog
  
  Yep! For the time being we’ll be offering the 50% discount to Mobile Spy customers as well.
  
  Reply
October 18, 2014

John Private

Considering I’d like to use this legally to monitor my children to protect them and possibly in the future to legally monitor my employees work (with written and signed consent) there are three features (the first being very critical to comply with US wiretapping laws) before someone is to purchase and be legally compliant. I’m not a lawyer but this is going by general knowledge that I recently heard about: One required feature is to prevent you from recording a call or surrounding conversation by state, because there is both a one party and a two party consent law that varies by states where you might not have the others parties explicit consent to record without permission, I just learned. That can be accomplished by a filter toggle in the panel to allow or disallow recording depending on the devices GEO location. Another is the ability to securely encrypt any sound, photo or movie recordings transmitted or stored on the server with very hardened multiple layer security, and a foolproof proven mechanism for ensuring that NOBODY else can hear, see or touch the data, especially not the developer or any third-party involved in the sale or administration of the product. This will be to also prevent anyone without permission from hacking the data. A third item will be to an electronic means of digitally signing a waiver/consent via a known digitally encrypted signature mechanism such as DocuSign to get signed permission and consent on the fly. What you guys have built is a very cool piece of technology but you must find a way to protect the consumer to make it legitimate otherwise I think that in the wrong hands the product leaves a door open that can be used in an illegal manner. Your story explains about how *YOU* are protected, it says nothing about the consumer. There are plenty of legal scenarios for the use of this product, you just need to direct your focus on ensuring them to make this product legally compliant without the consumers fear of legal repercussions. I think you also need to stop advertising that this product can be used to eavesdrop on lovers, divorced people, whatever, because that is saying you want customers to use this product in a illegitimate manner and thats just not right. There are enough problems in this world, use the product for the benefit of mankind, not the destruction of it.

Reply
1. October 20, 2014
  
  FlexiSPYBlog
  
  John,
  
  Thank you very much for your thoughtful and constructive post – you are taking the legality of monitoring very responsibly, and we believe that for employee monitoring, as long as you install monitoring software on your business devices, and you have made the employees aware of the monitoring, either by inclusion in the employee handbook, or explicit consent, then there is no question of any law being broken. You may be interested in our article on recording employee phone calls in our blog, which you can read through the following link – http://blog.flexispy.com/recording-and-monitoring-employee-calls-us/
  
  You then make a very interesting design suggestion which we think needs debate as it throw up a lot of philosophical questions.
  
  Extrapolating your suggestion as a general design principle for products, it proposes that we should technically develop and implement enforcement of laws into our products.
  
  We understand the sentiment, but bearing in mind that our market is global, and not just the USA, it would simply not be practical to build in this kind of support for all 195 countries. However, even it were possible, should we apply this principle to all products that have potential to be misused? For example, should we have finger print sensors and GPS detectors on guns that connect to a legal services and approved gun licenses library to determine if the trigger should be able to be pulled?
  
  It quickly becomes very complicated and you can see an Orwellian approach to society and industry would be required to do this. We think at some point, we have to let people take responsibility for their own actions.
  
  We absolutely agree with you that the manufacturer must build in consumer protection, but this can only realistically be limited to areas where the consumer could do something accidentally. Unless we go down the path of the movie “Minority Report”, there is no way of preventing the consumer from doing something illegal if they have already made up their mind to do so – and really, that is the job of law enforcement.
  
  Yet we do have a responsibility, and for FlexiSPY, insofar as product design is concerned, we provide an option to run the monitoring application in a visible mode. This satisfies those people who do not wish to make the application visible to everyone, but there are many parents, employers, and law enforcement customers who have a legal and practical reason for running it in hidden mode. We believe that by providing this visibility option, we have done all we can in product design to satisfy every possible legal scenario. Regarding encryption, we already encrypt and compress the data during transmission, and database password data on the server is encrypted – this is industry best practice. We do not yet encrypt pictures, but as they are stored as BLOBs in the database, they are to all intents and purposes secure from casual access, even by the system administrator
  
  Your point about advertising is thought provoking, and we would like to share with you the reality and nuances of this use case.
  
  We understand that some people may not like the “cheating spouse” advertising, and for that we apologize – we are not
  here to offend. However, we would ask you to understand that there are many countries and societies in the world where it’s not illegal to try to catch a cheating spouse. For example, we were made aware of a case in Australia where a homosexual couple was in court, with one partner trying to prosecute the other for installing spyware on their computer, because they feared that the partner’s infidelity could possibly infect him with Aids. The defendant was not prosecuted for this reason. We know you see this use of our products as destructive, but the reality is really quite different. You would be surprised to know that the bulk of our testimonials are where partners are relieved to find out that their partner was actually faithful. Regardless of the outcome, it’s a huge weight off the shoulders of someone who is going through the experience of doubt in their relationship. We would ask you to at least consider this thought, and understand that our products are not destructive, and actually bring great relief and security and eventually improve the lives of our customers.
  
  Finally, we would like say that if you have any suggestions where we could change the design of our product to make it impossible to use illegally against all the worlds legislation, while serving consumers and law enforcement, we would love to hear them.
  
  Reply
October 19, 2014

Bruce T

Hi, please advise if flexispy with work on the latest Samsung Note 4. I don’t know what OS it is, but would flexispy work in full mode with the latest android OS 4.4.4 or 4.4?

Reply
1. October 20, 2014
  
  FlexiSPYBlog
  
  Hi Bruce,
  
  Please see our updated comment in this thread, below.
  
  Reply
  1. October 23, 2014
    
    Bruce T
    
    Hi, I wrote in to Flexispy customer service and to reconfirm if Flexispy will indeed work in full mode with Android 4.4.4 of Samsung Galaxy Note 4. But to my surprise, I was told the opposite of what you had wrote. The officer says that Flexispy will only work up to Android 4.4.2.
    
    Can someone please verify this contrasting message? I need to be sure if Flexispy will indeed work full mode on Samsung Galaxy Note 4 with Android OS 4.4.4. Please help. Thanks
    
    Reply
    1. October 24, 2014
      
      FlexiSPYBlog
      
      Hi Bruce,
      
      This is an edit to our original comment:
      
      While our developers have said that we’re compatible with that Note 4 model running 4.4.4, we have yet to officially confirm this compatibility through our testing team -so technically there could be some features not working properly- which is why we don’t advertise 4.4.4 on the site at this moment. Sorry for the confusion.
      
      That being said, you’re welcome to try FlexiSPY with the included 10 day refund period.
      
      Or if you’d like to wait for our official stamp of approval, we’ll make sure to update you when that happens.
      
      Reply
      1. October 24, 2014
        
        Bruce T
        
        this is great news. thanks for the confirmation.
        
        can you please direct me to a page that gives complete guide on how to root the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 with Android 4.4.4? Thanks alot!
      2. October 24, 2014
        
        FlexiSPYBlog
        
        Hi Bruce!
        
        Here ya go ; )
        
        http://blog.flexispy.com/root-samsung-galaxy-note-4/
February 4, 2015

jane

Hi I was a stealth genie customer (outside the US) and was extremely frustrated how the FBI shut it down and made a big deal on personal privacy – particularly since records prove that the FBI and CIA are the most invasive organisations in the world (both in the US and elsewhere- they even tap heads of state of friendly countries!). Be that as it may I am now trying to find an alternative product – particularly one which will work on one of the new Vertu phones (android based) – will your system do that?

Reply
February 8, 2015

Christinamariac

I had stealthgenie and they were based in Germany. My bank red flagged my account because of the payment to stealthgenie in germany. Where are you located and will my account be flagged again if I buy flexispy?

Reply
1. February 9, 2015
  
  FlexiSPYBlog
  
  Hello Christinamariac.
  
  Purchasing FlexiSPY will not flag your bank account in the same way that StealthGenie did. So you should have no issues purchasing the software from our website.
  
  Reply
March 2, 2015

Neil

Hi there. Just wondering is there any news on a compatible version of flexispy for the Galaxy Note 4 running OS 4.4.4 yet..?? Thanks.

Reply
1. March 3, 2015
  
  FlexiSPYBlog
  
  Hi Neil,
  
  We still don’t officially support 4.4.4 yet.
  
  Reply
April 15, 2015

Reuben

Does flexispy works with ios 8.2

Reply
1. April 16, 2015
  
  FlexiSPYBlog
  
  There’s no Jailbreak solution out for 8.2 yet so we are not compatible.
  
  Reply

Why Did StealthGenie Get Busted By The Feds?

Why Did StealthGenie Get Busted By The Feds?

Background

Location, Location, Location …

Don’t Wake The Giant

Comments

40 responses to “Why Did StealthGenie Get Busted By The Feds?”

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