The rule
You may use GuestSpy to monitor a phone or tablet only if all three of the following are true at the same time: the monitoring is done openly, the person using the device knows the app is installed and what it shares, and the device is either your own minor child's or one you own and have lent to someone who has agreed. Openly means the app icon stays visible, the Transparency screen is not tampered with, and the notices the phone shows for remote actions are not suppressed. Knowledge means you have actually told the person, in words they understand, not that they could in theory have found out.
This rule is part of the terms of use and binds every account. It is not a guideline or a suggestion. Everything that follows is an explanation of how we apply it.
Who may be monitored
Your own child, where you are the parent or legal guardian and the child is under the age of majority where they live. This is the case the app was built for. A six-year-old with a first tablet, an eleven-year-old with a first phone, a fifteen-year-old with a budget and a bedtime: all fine, provided the child knows. Age matters in the other direction too. As a child gets older, the law in many places, and good sense everywhere, gives them more say over their own privacy. The consent switches for the sensitive categories exist for exactly this reason: the panel can ask, but only the person holding the phone can agree, and they can withdraw that agreement from the Transparency screen at any time.
A child in your care who is not legally yours, such as a foster child or a step-child, where you hold the guardianship or the parent with parental responsibility has asked you to supervise the device. If responsibility is shared or disputed, both parents should know; a monitoring app is not a tool for one parent to use against the other.
A person using a device you own, who has been told what the app does and has agreed. The usual example is a shared family tablet. Another is an elderly relative who has asked for help staying safe online and understands what they are agreeing to. The agreement must be real and ongoing; an agreement obtained by pressure, or from someone who cannot understand what they are agreeing to, does not count.
An employee using a device you provide, only where there is a written policy that the employee has received, clear and specific notice on the device itself, and compliance with the employment and privacy law of the country concerned. Even then the sensitive categories require the employee's own acceptance on the phone, and we recommend against using them in an employment setting at all. The product is built for families, and an employer is better served by tools designed for that purpose.
Who may not be monitored
A partner or spouse. It does not matter whether you suspect them of something, whether you pay for the phone, or whether you believe they would agree if asked. An adult in an intimate relationship cannot be monitored by the other adult through this service, with or without their stated agreement, because the pressure inside such a relationship makes genuine consent impossible to verify, and because the harm when it goes wrong is severe. If you are worried about your relationship, a monitoring app will not help, and if you are afraid of your partner, the people to speak to are a domestic-abuse helpline or the police.
A former partner, a co-parent you are no longer with, or anyone you are in a dispute with. A phone you once bought for someone is not yours to monitor once the relationship has ended.
Any other adult who has not given informed, freely-given, ongoing agreement. A flatmate, a lodger, a friend, an adult child, a sibling, a parent of your own.
An employee without the written policy and the on-device notice described above, or in any country where the law does not permit it.
Any device you do not own and are not the guardian of its user. A phone that belongs to your child's friend, to a neighbour, to a colleague, or that you found. Physical access to a phone for fifteen minutes is not ownership.
Anyone, in any case, covertly. If the app has been renamed, hidden, or installed without the person being told, the use is outside the rule regardless of who the person is.
Examples, side by side
The table gives concrete cases. If yours is not on it and you are unsure, ask us before you pair the device rather than afterwards.
| Situation | Allowed? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Your 12-year-old's first phone, set up together at the kitchen table, with the Transparency screen shown and explained. | Yes | Your child, your responsibility, done openly. |
| Your 16-year-old's phone, with location and a bedtime routine, and the message-body switch left off because they asked you not to. | Yes | Still your child; the consent switches are respected. |
| A shared family tablet used by three children, all of whom have seen the app and know what it does. | Yes | A device you own, with everyone's knowledge. |
| A foster child's phone, where the placing authority has agreed to the arrangement and the child has been told. | Yes | Guardianship plus openness. |
| Your 16-year-old's phone with every category on, after they said they do not want message bodies read and you accepted the switch on their phone yourself while they were asleep. | No | The consent step must be accepted by the person holding the phone. Accepting it for them is covert use. |
| Your partner's phone, because you suspect they are hiding something. | No | An adult partner can never be monitored through this service. |
| Your ex's phone, which you still pay the contract on, to see when the children are with them. | No | A former partner, and a device that is not yours to supervise regardless of who pays the bill. |
| A company phone issued to a staff member, with a signed monitoring policy, an on-screen notice, and only the Play-build categories switched on. | Only where local law permits | Possible in some countries with proper notice; we recommend a purpose-built employee tool instead. |
| A company phone with call recording and message bodies switched on, without a written policy. | No | No notice, no policy, and sensitive categories in a setting they are not designed for. |
| Your elderly mother's phone, at her request, so you can find it when she loses it and see if she has joined an open Wi-Fi network. | Yes | Her device, her request, her understanding; she can withdraw from the Transparency screen. |
| Your adult son's phone while he lives at home, without telling him. | No | An adult who has not agreed, and covert. |
| A phone you found and want to trace the owner of. | No | Not your device. Hand it to the police. |
What counts as evidence of misuse
We do not read the data in your account to police it. We do look at the signals the system produces without reading content, and some patterns point clearly at a breach. The following are the kinds of thing that will cause us to look more closely, and in some cases to act straight away:
- A child's birth year that makes the "child" an adult, or a device name such as "wife", "husband", "boyfriend" or a workplace term.
- The consent switch for a sensitive category accepted on the phone within seconds of the request being sent from the panel, repeatedly, in the middle of the night.
- A modified build of the app that removes or disables the Transparency screen, the app icon or the on-phone notices. We check the signature on every connection.
- A complaint from the person being monitored, or from someone on their behalf, that they did not know the app was installed.
- A request from a court, a police force or a domestic-abuse organisation about a specific account.
- Remote camera or ambient audio requests at a frequency that no supervising parent would need, or during hours that match a workplace rather than a childhood.
- Accounts created in bulk, or one account pairing many devices with the same name pattern.
None of these is proof on its own, and we do not act on a single ambiguous signal. Several together, or one strong one, will trigger the steps below.
What we do
Our response depends on how serious the breach appears and whether anyone seems to be at risk.
Where the issue is technical or ambiguous, such as a birth year that looks wrong, we write to the account holder, explain what we have seen and ask for an explanation. Most of the time there is an innocent answer, the detail is corrected and nothing more happens. An account that does not answer within 14 days is suspended until it does.
Where the signals point to covert monitoring of an adult, we suspend the account at once, without notice, while we look. Suspension stops the panel from showing any data and stops the server from accepting new data from the paired devices. The devices themselves continue to show the app icon and the Transparency screen, so the person being monitored can see what was running. If the explanation we receive is satisfactory, we lift the suspension; if it is not, or none comes, we close the account and delete the data on the normal schedule.
Where we have closed an account for misuse, we refuse new accounts from the same person where we can identify them, and we may block the device identifiers involved from pairing again.
Where the law requires us to report what we have found, for example because the use appears to be a criminal offence in the country concerned, or because a court orders disclosure, we report it. We will tell the account holder that we have done so unless the law forbids it or telling them would put someone at risk. We do not report on a whim and we do not hand data to anyone who simply asks for it; a lawful request is one that comes through the proper channel with the proper authority.
How to report misuse
If you believe GuestSpy is installed on your phone without your knowledge, or on someone else's, the quickest check is to look for the app icon and open it; the Transparency screen will tell you which categories are on and which parent account the phone is paired to. You can withdraw consent for the sensitive categories from that screen yourself, and you can remove the app like any other.
To report the account, write to [email protected] with as much as you safely can: the name shown on the Transparency screen, the make and model of the phone, and what makes you think the use is not legitimate. We will reply within two working days and we will not tell the account holder who contacted us. If you are in danger, contact the police first; our investigation can wait and your safety cannot.
If you are a parent and you are unsure whether your own intended use is within the rule, the same address works, and so does [email protected]. Asking first is never held against you.
Changes and contact
This policy is maintained by GuestSpy, and may be updated when we learn something new about how the product is used or misused. The date at the top changes each time. The one rule does not change.