30% of people believe secretly monitoring partners is OK: Survey

A new global survey has found that a "significant" number of people think it's OK to digitally stalk their partners secretly.

Kaspersky's survey quizzed more than 21,000 people in over 21 countries about their attitude towards installing stalkerware, an online monitoring software on their partner's phone to secretly check their activities.

While 70 per cent of the respondents didn't think it acceptable, a significant 30 per cent believed it was OK "under some circumstances". 

Some of the reasons justified for secret surveillance included concerns about infidelity (64 per cent), safety (63 per cent), or criminal activity (50 per cent). 

The survey also revealed that such monitoring were more noticeable in the Asia-Pacific region (24 per cent), followed by Europe (10 per cent) and the Americas (8 per cent).

Stalkerware remains hidden in a device and provides access to an array of personal data, such as device location, browser history, text messages or social media chats.

Kaspersky’s Digital Stalking in Relationships report, conducted online by Sapio Research in September 2021, also showed that 15 per cent of respondents worldwide have been required by their partner to install a monitoring app. Of these 34 per cent have also already experienced abuse by an intimate partner.