Thursday, August 29, 2013

Boyfriend Tracking

Boyfriend Tracking

Much like how Spider-man's Uncle Ben told him that with great power comes great responsibility, with the advancements and convenience of technology comes many opportunities to abuse that power and exploit that weakness. In many instances it just comes across that the ease to do something shouldn't justify actually doing so.

Take for example what is happening in Brazil with a GooglePlay app that could track your boyfriend if you feel he's cheating on you.
When it comes to the cloak and dagger effort of catching philandering lovers, all high-tech weapons appear to be fair game — at least to the tens of thousands of Brazilians who downloaded "Boyfriend Tracker" to their smartphones before the stealthy software was removed from the Google Play app store last week, apparently in response to complaints about privacy abuses and its potential to be used for extortion or even stalking.

"Brazilians are a jealous people, what can I say? Of course it's going to be popular," said Marcia Almeida, a 47-year-old woman in Rio whose marriage ended seven years ago in large part because of what she said was her husband's infidelity.

"It's a different type of spying," she said of comparisons to the NSA surveillance program. "You're checking up on somebody you know intimately, not some stranger."

The app, called "Rastreador de Namorados" (Portuguese for Boyfriend Tracker), promises to act like a "private detective in your partner's pocket."

Functions include sending the person doing the tracking updates on their partner's location and forwarding duplicates of text message traffic from the targeted phone. There is even a command that allows a user to force the target phone to silently call their own, like a pocket dial, so they can listen in on what the person is saying.
Jesus. That's some hardcore stuff right there. It's also really not a healthy relationship situation to have to worry about this. In fact, it flat our sucks.

You really have to question your own happiness and your own self worth when you feel like your partner is cheating on you. But at the same time, worrying about this isn't going to do anything but draw them closer into the other person's arms, or at the very least even further away from your own.

I have to wonder what's even the purpose of all this? If you suspect that your partner is cheating on you or no longer cares for you, then walk away. Walk away and realize that they aren't going to fight to keep you. So why are you fighting to keep track of them? At best you're going to find out some harsh truths on your own, and really, finding out on your own and letting that information stew in your head is far worse than actually having the person just admit to the affair. At least then you can get the bigger picture on what the truth of the matter and why it happened.

It's easy for me to say to just walk away. I know. I've been in that situation. But I also realize that it's damn difficult when you still love that person. But we're not talking about that stage of the potential fixing and making ti work part. We're in the "I believe he's cheating on me and I need piece of mind by catching him in the act" sort of shit and that will drive you crazy and if not, will destroy your relationship with them.

This also goes to show what I have been saying all along and why I do not want to date anyone from Latin America. Because while they have this fire filled passion, that passion cuts both ways. In that if you do them wrong, that passion just acts as a double edged sword and you're going to get equal amounts of hate and scorn. Holy shit, you do not want to cross the paths with someone who has been scorned like that. Let met tell you.

No bueno.

The flat out truth is this. If you suspect your partner is cheating, you either need to confront them and address the issues or just walk away from it. Seeking these answers through private eye or even private future 1984 dystopian means of thought police is not going to help, and is probably going to equally hurt your relationship as the act of cheating itself.

The moment you resort to these, the trust is gone. And once that is on the out, then rebuilding it is a long journey that many are not willing to go down because you're not with someone who created the very same baggage that you are dragging on with not being able to trust someone.

It's a fucked up situation and I wish it upon no one. Not even my worst enemies. It's just something you don't want others to suffer through.

So save yourself the few bucks and data and just go with getting the angry birds app or something else.





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