- SEATTLE, Washington (AP)
- Right now, your boss, your spouse or the government could secretly be
reading all your typed words -- even the ones you deleted -- while surreptitiously
snapping your picture.
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- Sound alarming? The man who makes it possible is the
first to agree.
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- "It's horrifying!" says Richard Eaton, who
develops, markets and even answers the technical help line for WinWhatWhere
software.
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- "I'm Mr. Guard-My-Privacy, so it's kind of ironic,"
says Eaton, a lanky 48-year-old with a diamond stud earring. "Every
time I add a feature into it, usually it's something that I've fought for
a long time."
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- His qualms haven't stopped him from selling the product,
though -- more than 200,000 copies of it -- to everyone from suspicious
spouses to the FBI.
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- And Eaton is building ever-more-detailed monitoring tricks
into his Investigator software. The latest version, released this month,
can snap pictures from a Web camera, save screen shots and read keystrokes
in multiple languages.
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- Investigator already can read every e-mail, instant message
and document you send and receive, even if you delete -- or never even
saved -- what you typed.
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- The $99 downloadable program runs "hidden in plain
sight." It changes names every so often, and files containing the
information it gathers are given arbitrary old dates to make them difficult
to find.
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- The monitor can choose to have a user's every move sent
to an e-mail address, or the program can be instructed to look for keywords
like "boss," "pornography" or "terrorist"
and only send records when it finds those prompts.
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- Your boss may use Investigator
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- Software like Investigator was virtually unknown two
years ago. Now it's become a lucrative niche market, attracting plenty
of competitors and at least one product that aims to track down the snooping
software itself.
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- Federal investigators in Seattle used Investigator to
snag suspected Russian computer hackers, one of whom was recently convicted
on 20 counts including conspiracy, various computer crimes and fraud.
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- Another, similar product was used in the FBI's investigation
of alleged mobster Nicodemo Scarfo Jr.
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- A Maywood, New Jersey, security firm called Corporate
Defense Strategies used Investigator at an import-export firm to snare
two employees who were selling company merchandise and pocketing the cash.
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- CDS President Jeff Prusan has since used it to help clients
catch employees who send out resumes, download pornography or spend their
shifts playing games.
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- "It's unfortunate that it has come to this, but
I've always believed that it's better to know what's going on than not,"
Prusan says.
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- Miki Compson, a computer consultant and mother of four
in Severn, Maryland, used Investigator to track computer correspondence
from a suspicious person who she said ended up stalking her daughter.
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- She's recommended it to other parents whose kids were
corresponding with adults and defends the practice as a safety measure.
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- Eaton says he wouldn't likely use it on his own two children
-- "I'd talk to them!" -- but he also doesn't feel comfortable
telling people what to do with his invention.
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- And although he hates to hear tales of deception in the
fast-growing market of spouse tracking online, he says he wouldn't tell
people not to do it.
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- "I'm selling a hammer," he says. "They
can beat nails with it, or their dog."
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- If someone calls with proof the software is being used
nefariously, Eaton said he'll show the person how to remove it.
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- 'I think I need to fire myself'
-
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- The latest version of WinWhatWhere Investigator can snap
pictures from a Web camera, save screen shots and read keystrokes in multiple
languages.
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- Ari Schwartz, associate director for the Center for Democracy
and Technology, says there are legitimate uses for the product, such as
catching employees engaging in fraud or child pornography.
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- But Schwartz recommends that employers inform their staffs
if monitoring for certain activities is occurring. He also urges spouses
and parents to think about the repercussions before using such software
at home.
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- "If your relationship is at the point where you
feel that you need to spy on your spouse, is this the best way to repair
your relationship or perhaps (should) you be going to therapy?" he
says.
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- In most cases, Schwartz says, snooping software is not
illegal. But "we think morally there are some very large issues with
(employers) tracking the personal habits of their employees."
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- A self-taught programmer who says he barely graduated
from high school, Eaton stumbled on the idea for Investigator when he wrote
a tracker program to help him find and repair software bugs.
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- He started selling it as a snooper product around 1997.
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- Eaton still runs the company, much as he did five years
ago -- from his home in the eastern Washington town of Kennewick. His wife
handles the bookkeeping while he burns the CDs, answers the help line and
runs the Web site.
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- Occasionally, Eaton also checks his own Investigator
logs -- and is always disturbed by the amount of time he spends online.
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- "When I look at my logs during the day, I think
I need to fire myself," he said
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- http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/02/18/sneaky.software.ap/index.html
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