These apps were designed to be installed when the phone owner left their phone unguarded, and to be unnoticed by the phone owner. Poor man's Evil Maid attack.

These apps were designed to be installed when the phone owner left their phone unguarded, and to be unnoticed by the phone owner. Poor man's Evil Maid attack. TFA: "To install the apps, the purchasers were required to bypass mobile device manufacturer restrictions, which the FTC alleges exposed the devices to security vulnerabilities and likely invalidated manufacturer warranties. In addition, while Retina-X claimed in its legal policies that the apps were intended for monitoring employees and children, Retina-X did not take any steps to ensure that its apps were being used for these purposes. Each of the apps provided purchasers with instructions on how to remove the app’s icon from appearing on the mobile device’s screen so that the device’s user would not know the app was installed on the device, according to the complaint."