Topic Library — Hidden Technology in the Home (Year 1 Foundations)

School: Minister Destiny Testimony Schools Track: Law Enforcement Class: Topic Library — Year 1 (Foundations) Founded and presented by: Muslim Ordained Minister Destiny Marie Morgan

A note on what this school is: this is community-designed training — Minister Destiny's program, built from lived experience in the neighborhoods being policed. It is not agency policy and does not replace your department's training, general orders, or the law. Where this program proposes new approaches, they are taught and labeled as proposals. Nothing here is legal advice.

Before you start

• This school never collects your name. Progress and quiz answers stay on your device; pass the unit quiz (80% or higher, retakes allowed) and your certificate downloads with a blank name line to fill in after saving. Answers are not shown.
• SAFETY FIRST — before anything else: a sudden sweep of the home, an announced seizure, a forced password reset, or a confrontation with the suspect can escalate danger for the victim and destroy the evidence you came to protect. Coordinate with the victim and an advocate before any step the suspect could observe, and establish a SAFE communication channel first — the victim's own phone may be compromised. Nothing in this unit outranks that rule.
• This unit teaches recognition, documentation, and preservation — never planting surveillance or entering accounts without authority.

The lesson

Part 1. The call you are walking into

Technology-facilitated abuse is technology misused to monitor, track, harass, or control another person. In a home it looks ordinary: a partner who always knows where the victim went and what was said in a room he never entered — via hidden cameras, stalkerware, taken-over accounts, or a smart home run by one person. That is the admin-account problem: one person holds every password and alert while the victim may own none of the accounts in her own home. Reports are often disbelieved because fear stretches language — "satellites" may wrap a real compromise. Treat the framing as distress, and check the real vectors first: phone, accounts, cameras, trackers, people with access.

Part 2. Interview and documentation at intake

Work from a believe-and-document posture: record the report as if a court will test it — "victim reports the suspect repeated a kitchen conversation held on [date]; suspect was not present," not "victim claims satellites." Ask what surfaces tech abuse: Who set up the phones, Wi-Fi, doorbell, and smart devices? Who knows the passwords? Does the suspect repeat locations, conversations, or messages he should not know? Do settings change on their own? Photograph devices in place before anything is touched. Begin the evidence log at intake — dates, device descriptions, screenshots from a safe device — and never use the possibly-compromised phone for follow-up: a stalkerware feed can expose your number and her cooperation. Agree on the safe channel before you leave.

Part 3. What you are looking for

Disguised cameras hide in objects with a reason to face a room: detectors, alarm clocks, chargers, picture frames — look for one oddly placed, duplicated, or oddly powered. Standalone recorders are small voice recorders or phones left running in bags and vehicles. Document in place. Bluetooth trackers, sold to find belongings, are misused by slipping one into a bag, vehicle, or child's belongings; both major phone platforms now alert users to unknown trackers traveling with them — document the alert and photograph any located tracker before removal. Stalkerware indicators (FTC and Coalition Against Stalkerware guidance) include an unknown app holding device-administrator rights, an unfamiliar accessibility service switched on, an unrecognized app under a generic name, and anomalies — fast battery drain, data spikes, a phone warm at rest. Together, they justify a qualified examiner.

Part 4. Preservation that survives court

Do not wipe, reset, delete from, or browse a device beyond your authority — uninformed handling destroys data. Secure it per policy for a qualified examiner. Under Riley v. California, police generally need a warrant to search digital information on a cell phone; consent, warrant, and narrow exigency are the boundaries in outline (see the companion wiretapping unit). If you are not certain you have authority to look, you do not look — you preserve. Provider records vanish on retention schedules: under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f), a provider must, on governmental request, preserve records in its possession pending legal process for 90 days, extended one additional 90-day period on renewed request. Send it early, name accounts and date ranges precisely, and calendar the renewal — preservation holds evidence; it does not hand it to you. Coordinate with carriers on SIM changes, ports, and password resets, and log every request. Chain of custody is the unbroken written record of an item, its collection, and every transfer. Photograph and log before removal.

Part 5. Charges and orders

Federally, 18 U.S.C. § 2511 prohibits intentional interception, attempted interception, and procurement of interception of wire, oral, and electronic communications, and disclosure or use of communications known to be unlawfully intercepted. The Federal Trade Commission banned the SpyFone provider and its chief executive from the surveillance business in 2021. Massachusetts-first: Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 272, § 99 criminalizes willfully intercepting, attempting, or procuring an interception — secretly hearing or recording through an intercepting device without prior authority of all parties — with installation showing intent as prima facie evidence. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 272, § 105 prohibits willfully photographing, videotaping, or electronically surveilling a person who is nude or partially nude, or the sexual or other intimate parts of a person under or around clothing, secretly and without knowledge and consent where privacy is reasonably expected, and separately punishes disseminating such an image. Harassment and stalking chapters are taught elsewhere — pointer only. Under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 209A, advocates routinely ask that orders address technology: no contact across accounts, numbers, and devices, and conditions on surrender or transfer of monitoring access.

Part 6. Working the attribution problem honestly

Expect the hard question to be who, not what: a camera proves watching happened; it rarely proves who watched. Say so honestly at the start. Attribution is built from converging records — account logs showing which account accessed a feed, and when; payment trails (stalkerware is sold by subscription, so a recurring card charge, vendor account, and license key tie a named purchaser to the tool); carrier records placing SIM and device changes on a timeline; purchase, possession, and admissions evidence. Provider process follows the Stored Communications Act ladder: basic subscriber information by subpoena, further records by court order on specific and articulable facts, contents by warrant — no templates here; use your agency's process, and send the § 2703(f) request first. Work with the victim and an advocate throughout, timing account re-securing so the suspect's loss of access is not a surprise he answers with violence.

Part 7. Staying inside your own limits

End with the mirror. Part 1's abuse is surveillance of a person who did not consent, using access and tools. Your location tools, device searches, and monitoring are lawful only because warrants, statutes, and policy authorize each use. The companion unit "Wiretapping, Phone Cloning, and Illegal Surveillance" teaches those limits in depth. Body-camera and cruiser technology are handled under department policy — one line, because this program is not agency policy. These are records cases, won by preservation, photographs before anything was touched, and gap-free custody — and lost by shortcuts like the phone scrolled without authority or the sweep announced to a listening administrator.

Words to know — Hidden Technology in the Home

• Technology-facilitated abuse — technology misused to monitor, track, harass, or control another person as a tactic of abuse.
• Stalkerware — software installed to secretly monitor another person's phone activity, messages, and location without their knowledge.
• Device administrator — an app holding elevated phone rights that can resist removal and control device functions; stalkerware commonly claims them.
• Accessibility service — a phone feature letting an app read screen content to assist users; stalkerware abuses it to capture messages.
• Preservation request — a governmental request under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f) requiring a provider to preserve records for 90 days, renewable once.
• Chain of custody — the unbroken written record of an evidence item, its collector, and every transfer.
• Interception — secretly hearing or recording a wire, oral, or electronic communication through a device, without legal authority.
• Bluetooth tracker — a small wireless tag sold to locate belongings; phone platforms alert users to unknown trackers traveling with them.
• Safe communication channel — a contact method the suspect cannot observe, agreed before any step he could notice.
• Attribution — proving which person operated an account, device, or tool, distinct from proving monitoring occurred.

Myths vs facts — Hidden Technology in the Home

• Myth: If we find no camera, nothing happened. Fact: Watching is often account-based — there may be no camera to find.
• Myth: A fast sweep and announced seizure protect best. Fact: A sudden sweep alerts the suspect and can escalate danger. Preserve first, with the victim and an advocate.
• Myth: Resetting the victim's phone and passwords at intake solves it. Fact: Resets destroy evidence and warn the suspect. Re-secure from a safe device, after preservation.
• Myth: A victim describing "satellites" is not credible. Fact: Distressed framing often wraps a real compromise. Check the ordinary vectors first.
• Myth: The suspect owns the accounts, so his access cannot be criminal. Fact: Secret interception and surreptitious recording turn on secrecy and consent, not whose name is on the bill.

Think it through — Hidden Technology in the Home

The situation: On a domestic-violence call, the victim says her former partner "always knows where she is." He texted her the café she had just left, repeated a sentence from a call with her sister, and the thermostat changes settings at night. He set up her phone plan, the Wi-Fi, and the video doorbell. She asks you to "rip everything out tonight," on the only phone she has.

Walk it through: (1) Safety and channel first — Parts 1–2: never plan the case on her possibly-compromised phone; agree on a safe channel and involve an advocate first. (2) Intake — Part 2: document his unexplained knowledge with dates; photograph devices in place. (3) Recognition — Part 3: the café text points to tracking; the repeated sentence to stalkerware or account access; the thermostat to retained access. (4) Preservation — Part 4: no resets tonight; send § 2703(f) requests, log carrier events, preserve devices for an examiner. (5) Charges and orders — Part 5: evaluate § 2511 and ch. 272, § 99, § 105 only if secret intimate imaging is shown, and ask that any ch. 209A order cover accounts, devices, and his smart-home access. (6) Attribution — Part 6: tell her proof rests on account logs and payment or carrier records.

Cases & codes to study — Hidden Technology in the Home

United States v. Hammad Akbar (StealthGenie) — enforcement action (E.D. Va., 2014)

• The facts: Akbar, chief executive of the companies behind StealthGenie, marketed an app that could intercept calls, messages, and email, report location, and activate the phone's microphone — advertised as undetectable.
• The question: Whether selling a device whose primary purpose is surreptitious interception is itself a federal crime.
• The ruling and the outcome: Akbar pleaded guilty to sale of an interception device and advertisement of a known interception device; sentenced to time served, fined $500,000, and ordered to forfeit the StealthGenie source code — the first criminal conviction for selling mobile spyware.
• Why it matters to you: Subscription and payment records behind such tools are attribution evidence in your cases (Part 6).
• 📄 Court document: Department of Justice press release, "Man Pleads Guilty for Selling 'StealthGenie' Spyware App and Ordered to Pay $500,000 Fine" (justice.gov).

In re Support King, LLC (SpyFone) — FTC enforcement action (FTC, 2021)

• The facts: Support King, LLC (SpyFone.com) and CEO Scott Zuckerman sold apps letting purchasers secretly monitor photos, texts, web histories, GPS locations, and other phone activity without the device owner's knowledge, with instructions for hiding the app, and data the FTC alleged was not secured.
• The question: Whether selling surreptitious-monitoring apps, and failing to safeguard data harvested through them, violates federal consumer-protection law.
• The ruling and the outcome: By final order in December 2021, the FTC banned Support King and Zuckerman from offering, promoting, selling, or advertising any surveillance app, service, or business, required deletion of illegally collected information, and required notice to owners of monitored devices (finalized 4–0).
• Why it matters to you: Federal enforcement against the industry itself supports victims' credibility and explains the subscription records your requests target.
• 📄 Court document: Federal Trade Commission, "FTC Finalizes Order Banning Stalkerware Provider from Spyware Business" (ftc.gov) — https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2021/12/ftc-finalizes-order-banning-stalkerware-provider-spyware-business

The law itself — read the real words

• 18 U.S.C. § 2511 (U.S. Code) — prohibits intentional interception of wire, oral, or electronic communications, and disclosure or use of communications known to be unlawfully intercepted. Read it: https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?edition=2010&num=0&req=granuleid%3AUSC-2010-title18-section2511
• 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f) (U.S. Code) — requires a provider, on governmental request, to preserve records pending legal process, for 90 days, renewable once. Read it: https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-2012-title18-section2703&num=0&edition=2012
• Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 272, § 99 (Mass. Gen. Laws) — prohibits willful secret interception by an intercepting device without prior authority of all parties; installation showing intent is prima facie evidence. Read it: https://malegislature.gov/laws/generallaws/partiv/titlei/chapter272/section99
• Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 272, § 105 (Mass. Gen. Laws) — prohibits secretly surveilling a nude or partially nude person, or intimate parts under or around clothing, without knowledge and consent where privacy is reasonably expected. Read it: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleI/Chapter272/Section105

Where to read the real thing, free: U.S. Code (uscode.house.gov); Massachusetts General Laws (malegislature.gov); FTC releases (ftc.gov); Department of Justice releases (justice.gov).

Try this — Hidden Technology in the Home

• ☐ Memorize the § 2703(f) preservation first step — provider, accounts, date ranges, 90 days, calendar the renewal.
• ☐ Use the Part 2 intake questions on your next domestic call.
• ☐ Photograph a training home's devices; write the evidence-log entries.
• ☐ List the Part 3 stalkerware indicators from memory, then check against the unit.
• ☐ Draft technology conditions for a ch. 209A application where the suspect administers the accounts.

Resources to keep — Hidden Technology in the Home

• 911 — for immediate danger to any person.
• National Domestic Violence Hotline — 1-800-799-7233 — advocate referral and safety planning.
• NNEDV Safety Net Project — nnedv.org / techsafety.org — technology-safety guidance.
• Federal Trade Commission — ftc.gov — stalkerware enforcement and consumer guidance.
• Department of Justice — justice.gov — federal enforcement.
• mass.gov — official Massachusetts information.
• FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center — ic3.gov — reporting internet-facilitated crime.
• 988 (call or text) — Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

What you earned / what's next — Hidden Technology in the Home

✅ Hidden Technology in the Home complete (quiz score 80% or higher): You can recognize technology-facilitated abuse and the admin-account problem, run a believe-and-document intake through a safe channel, identify disguised cameras, trackers, and stalkerware indicators, preserve devices and provider records under § 2703(f) within your authority, map facts to the unit's statutes and to ch. 209A technology conditions, and build attribution from records.

Your certificate

Minister Destiny Testimony Schools Certificate of Completion — Hidden Technology in the Home

This certificate is presented by Muslim Ordained Minister Destiny Marie Morgan

Awarded to: ______________________________ (write your name here after you download — your name is never collected or stored by this school)

Date completed: ______________

Congratulations. You have learned to find the watching that leaves no bruise — protecting the victim first, the evidence second, and your own authority always. — Minister Destiny Marie Morgan

This is a certificate of educational completion from Minister Destiny Testimony Schools. It is not a state license, a government certification, or legal training for representing anyone. School rank and completion are school achievements only — not a law-enforcement rank, title, or credential.

What's next: Return to the Topic Library for your next Year 1 Foundations unit.

Sources

• National Network to End Domestic Violence, Safety Net Project (nnedv.org) — "Recognizing and Combating Technology-Facilitated Abuse" — definition and safety planning.
• Clinic to End Tech Abuse (CETA), Cornell Tech (ceta.tech.cornell.edu) — public resources — threat models, advocate partnership.
• Federal Trade Commission (ftc.gov) — "FTC Finalizes Order Banning Stalkerware Provider from Spyware Business" (December 2021) — SpyFone facts and ban; stalkerware indicators.
• Department of Justice (justice.gov) — "Man Pleads Guilty for Selling 'StealthGenie' Spyware App and Ordered to Pay $500,000 Fine" (2014) — Akbar plea and sentence.
• Coalition Against Stalkerware public guidance, via FTC and advocacy materials — device-administrator and accessibility-service abuse, battery and data anomalies.
• 18 U.S.C. § 2511 (U.S. Code) — interception and disclosure of wire, oral, or electronic communications prohibited.
• 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f) (U.S. Code) — preservation of evidence on governmental request; 90 days, renewable once.
• Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 272, § 99 (Mass. Gen. Laws) — interception of wire and oral communications.
• Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 272, § 105 (Mass. Gen. Laws) — secretly surveilling a nude or partially nude person or intimate parts; verified scope.
• Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 209A (Mass. Gen. Laws) — abuse prevention orders; framework for technology conditions.
• Riley v. California, 573 U.S. 373 (2014) — cited in outline only: police generally need a warrant to search digital information on a cell phone.

Your Progress — On Your Device Only — Hidden Technology in the Home

• Learning outcomes: On completing this unit, the student can:
• state the safety-first rule and establish a safe channel before any observable step;
• conduct a believe-and-document intake surfacing technology abuse, and photograph devices in place;
• recognize disguised cameras, recorders, Bluetooth trackers, and stalkerware indicators;
• send and calendar a § 2703(f) preservation request; maintain chain of custody;
• match facts to 18 U.S.C. § 2511, ch. 272, § 99, and § 105, and request technology conditions in a ch. 209A order;
• explain the attribution problem and the Stored Communications Act ladder;
• state the limits on the officer's own device searches and monitoring.
• Study time: Approximately 30 minutes — an estimate covering reading, activities, and the test. Students move at their own pace.
• Assessment: A 10-question test drawn only from this unit's lesson. 80% or higher passes and earns the unit certificate. Answers are not shown; your score is saved only in your own browser on this device, and retakes are allowed.
• Level: Topic Library — Year 1 (Foundations) · Law Enforcement school · working rank on completion path: Freshman → Sophomore.
• Version: Version 1.0 — October 2026.

Minister Destiny Testimony Schools — Law Enforcement. Educational information only, not legal advice. Help lines: 911 for emergencies · 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call/text 988).