SMS Secret Replicator - Carving up the Mobile App Turkeys of 2010
Why is it a turkey? If there's a lesson to be learned from the scandals swirling around tabloid targets like Tiger Woods and Brett Favre, it's this: Be very, very careful about what and whom you're texting. But even the most reprehensible behavior doesn't justify the existence of DLP Mobile's SMS Secret Replicator, which automatically creates blind carbon copies of incoming text messages and forwards them to a selected number, effectively enabling jealous lovers, uptight parents and diabolical colleagues to secretly download the software to their unwitting victim's smartphone and keep tabs on their personal communications. In a blog post announcing Secret SMS Replicator's launch, DLP Mobile calls the app "a tremendously useful and potentially insidious tool," recommending "Grab your boyfriend's phone while he is in the shower. Download our app onto his Android phone and the app runs secretly, unable to be detected, BCC'ing you with all his incoming texts. Find out salacious details and he'll have no idea you're on to him. Perfect. Perfectly cruel."
SMS Secret Replicator was briefly available for download via Android Market before Google unceremoniously yanked it less than a day later; however, it remains on sale from independent app retailers like MobiHand. According to a Google spokesperson, Secret SMS Replicator was removed because it "violates the Android Market Content Policy." Beyond that, it also violates some of the fundamental tenets of human decency, like trust and respect. Here's the harsh truth: If you're the kind of person who would download an app like SMS Secret Replicator to your partner's smartphone, it speaks volumes about why they're cheating on you in the first place.
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