why-people-build-spyware.md (2715B)
1 # Why People Build Spyware? 2 3 ## Date: 2025/10/5 4 5 I will argue the main driver behind people building spyware is apathy. 6 7 ## The Real World vs. The Digital World 8 9 Yesterday I was following a person from my apartment complex around because I wanted to know what he did for work. It was quite interesting, he works at a restaurant and I learned some new recipes by watching him cook. It's nice being able to watch people when they don't know they're being watched. 10 11 Wait, no, I didn't do that, because that's creepy. What I actually did is added PostHog telemetry to my website to track how users are navigating my website, what they click on, where their mouse goes, their keystrokes, all that. Wait, I didn't do that either because it's equally as creepy. 12 13 It is far more palatable for most developers to add input and page navigation tracking to a website than to tail someone in real life. In both cases, you are observing someone who doesn't know they are being observed and likely doesn't want to be observed. This leads me to conclude that if one is not acceptable, neither are. 14 15 So why is it palatable to add site tracking? Because it is in the digital world, not the real world. When people are just numbers on a screen and users of software you developed, they are often viewed as less than people. Why does it matter that I know what user 2109478 did on my website? I made the website, I'm the creator of the website, they chose to use my site, don't they know the consequences of that? This framing removes any guilt associated with developing spyware and thrusting it upon people. 16 17 ## What Can Be Done? 18 19 If you are developing software, say no to tracking. I am guilty of transgressions myself, but please consider the consequences of the tracking you add to your software and consider if it would be reasonable to collect this data in person. If it isn't, why is it okay to collect this data online? 20 21 If you are using software that has trackers, ask yourself why. Would you be willing to have someone sitting behind you collecting this information? If not, don't put up with it. If the software is libre, make the changes yourself to write these wrongs and re-distribute it to anyone who will use it. If the software is non-libre (proprietary), use not an "alternative" [1] to it, but an improvement upon it in the form of libre software. If no such software exists, ask yourself why that is. Could you build a libre improvement upon it? Why is it you need to use this software in the first place? Does your the task you are trying to achieve supersede the value of privacy and the immorality of proprietary software? 22 23 ## Citations 24 25 [1] - https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#Alternative