Did you know there are some creative and alternative ways to use cell phone monitoring software programs? If you have done any research into these types of software apps. You will of course be aware of the main features and what they are capable of doing.
All the usual stuff, logging all calls and phone use, spying on text messages sent and received, cell phone tracking and logs of internet use are just some of the main functions.
These programs are often described as spy phone software but they can be useful for so much more. With a little extra thought and a few fresh ideas you can learn how to get the most value from this type of software. I want to help you get the most from your monitoring or spy software based on a few things I have tried.
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Safeguard the Information Held on Your Phone
This is a great angle which doesn’t immediately come to mind but for some users it should even be a main reason to buy phone spy software. Cell phones are such an important part of many people’s day to day lives and if you have ever lost or had yours stolen you can remember the hassle and annoyance, not to mention the expense!
For some people the consequences may be even worse with the prospect of personal or sensitive information falling into the wrong hands. Business users especially tend to have information on their cell phones that should not be available to others.
Sensitive Data on Your Phone?
Think about what’s on your cell phone and would you be happy to loose the data but also how would you feel about a thief getting their hands on it! As we use our phones in ever more sophisticated ways this range of potentially sensitive information grows – from home address and phone numbers to bank accounts and passwords – I hope you are suitably worried!
Whatever the contents of your phone – personal photos and video, contact lists, private text messages or business details – you can add an extra layer of security using some of the phone software solutions available.
Software programs such as Mobile Spy and StealthGenie have some great security features allowing you to perform tasks remotely. If your phone is lost or stolen you can backup all the data from the phone and then delete it or lock the phone to stop anyone from gaining access and using the phone.
With these two programs you can do this instantly and remotely – by sending an SMS text command from the user panel. With Mobile Spy you can even set off a siren alarm on the stolen phone and of course you can track where the phone is before deciding to lock or delete the phone data.
Of course you could do regular backups of your mobile phone data in other ways but how many people actually do this on a regular basis? With this phone monitoring software you can get instant backups and then block or delete – keeping all of your data safe. This can be invaluable for your personal cell phone or for company cells used by your employees.
Use Your Cell Phone as a Tracking Device
One of the major features with this type of software is the phone tracking ability. Each of the programs has slightly different ways of using and reporting this but they all use satellite (GPRS) and phone mast tracking. What it means is that at any time you can log on to your control panel and see where your target phone is on a map and even get a recent history of its movements.
Again for some people this could be their main motivation for buying as it can represent so much value. Take a small or medium sized business with sales staff on the road. Many firms pay for vehicle tracking systems to monitor the use of the vehicle.
With the cell phone tracking ability you can monitor where the employee is at any given time (and so the vehicle in most cases) but you have so much more information available such as call logs and all the phone data can be viewed instantly.
If you supply a cell phone to your staff you can quickly and easily keep track of where they are and look out for any unauthorized phone use – potentially saving your business money. Make sure your staff are making the visits and calls they are supposed to be making.
Remember to do this in legal ways – you must notify the employee beforehand that the cell phone is being monitored. (This by itself will normally cut out any unauthorized phone use).
The tracking features can also be great for parents looking to add some sort of parental controls for kids cell phones – another positive aspect of monitoring software.
Use Your Phone as a Bug or Recording Device
With programs like StealthGenie and Flexispy Pro you can use a cell phone (with the software installed) as a bug or recording device. This feature of course is open to abuse but there can be useful and legal uses for this type of software.
Installed on your own or an employees phone you could quickly and easily use it to record important meetings or to dictate memos etc. – no need for a Dictaphone. It can even be used to simply record your ideas or reminders when traveling for example – then you can access the recordings back at the office for later use.
Remember to stay within the law – in most countries you cannot covertly record conversations, you need to get the persons consent in most cases.
When people initially look at buying spy software programs they are drawn by the idea of spying – the headlines advertizing it are partly to blame – “Spy on your spouse” or “Spy on your staff”. In fact the very term “Spy Phone Software” conjures up images of James Bond or the Cold War. But this software can be used for so many different purposes – many of them perfectly legitimate, legal and moral.
If you start to think of it as cell phone monitoring software you can see more legitimate uses. Sometimes you just need to start using the cell phone software and get familiar with the different features – then you will get new ideas about how to use the software in your situation.
I hope this has started your thought process and let you see that some of the less obvious features can be very beneficial and ethical.
On the subject of ethics – have a look at two of my very different reviews –
Stealthgenie Review and Spybubble Review, see how two different companies can have such a contrasting approach to ethics.
Another article looks at the ethics of Monitoring your Kids Cell Phone – inspired by a comment left by a worried parent.