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How can I spy on someone?

goodtimes5

goodtimes5

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 4, 2004
778
0
Bay Area
I have a family member who has been up to suspicious activity. Let's just say that the police have gotten involved. She owns a Mac and runs Panther on the same network I use for internet. If I wanted to someone how track her internet activity, IM chats, and all that good stuff, how could I go about doing this?

Much help is appreciated.
 
Break into her computer and install a spyware script that e-mails the activity to you -- but if she gets pissed off, she can alway sick the cops on you, and it'll probably be a federal violation.

Otherwise you need to spend some actual money on a decent router (or use a computer as the router) that either tracks usage, or stops the activity in it's tracks using a content based firewall (not NAT).

Edit: but spying on people will only get you in more trouble, next stop Jerry Springer.
 
If she's your daughter and under 18, then you can lay down smack any laws.
 
I would never recommend spying on family. If you have questions, ask them.

If you must, just hop on her computer when she's not there, if its password protected then just wait for her to step away for a bit, diner, shower and then spy on her browser history.

That's right I said spy on her browser history while she's in the shower no spy on her, you perve.

If you go full-on CIA-KBG crap on her, you will definetly being straining that relationship.
 
Sun Baked said:
Break into her computer and install a spyware script that e-mails the activity to you -- but if she gets pissed off, she can alway sick the cops on you, and it'll probably be a federal violation.
Click to expand...
If you're the network admin, you can do anything you want. It's your network.
 
snkTab said:
I would never recommend spying on family. If you have questions, ask them.

If you must, just hop on her computer when she's not there, if its password protected then just wait for her to step away for a bit, diner, shower and then spy on her browser history.

That's right I said spy on her browser history while she's in the shower no spy on her, you perve.

If you go full-on CIA-KBG crap on her, you will definetly being straining that relationship.
Click to expand...

doesnt work we can erase the history :D
 
ChrisBrightwell said:
If you're the network admin, you can do anything you want. It's your network.
Click to expand...
God complex there. :D

The network is your playground, and the computers are generally off-limits unless you are also the computer administrator.

If a network administrator breaks into a student computer, they likely will be out of a job and in deep crap.
 
put a keystroke tracker on, my friend told me about those and it has me freaked out enough not to do anything bad on the computer.
 
AP_piano295 said:
doesnt work we can erase the history :D
Click to expand...

I agree, I erase mine a lot, but somehow it still doesn't help. You always slip up. I just gave up.


AP_piano295 said:
put a keystroke tracker on, my friend told me about those and it has me freaked out enough not to do anything bad on the computer.
Click to expand...

These are also cheap now and also discreat, but I still recommend confrontation.
 
If the police are already involved, they can obtain a warrant and install the necessary software or hardware. Don't go messing with this yourself, all you'd be doing is making it that much easier for the defense to have evidence tossed out.
 
iMeowbot said:
If the police are already involved, they can obtain a warrant and install the necessary software or hardware. Don't go messing with this yourself, all you'd be doing is making it that much easier for the defense to have evidence tossed out.
Click to expand...

I'm going to assume that the OP is under 18 (posted in the under-18 after all) and that this is his sister or cousin. Personally, I wouldn't want to involve the police unless we had some family abuse going on.

Also, police involvement may have mean that it crossed over the line, but still, if its something she's not telling you, maybe its none of your business (not trying to be mean)
.
 
For those of you who are trying to pull me away from surveillance, thanks for offering a way out, but I have decided. I don't want to dwell into details, but I dreadfully need to know what is happening. Asking is out of the question.

I always hear about keystroke trackers, but I have yet to find one for Mac.
 
Duff-Man says....careful - you may be walking on thin ice here...asking for assistance with "hacking" etc is not really allowed in the forums here....oh yeah!
 
If you have a panther CD, you can reset her password, and do what you need to do, unless she has file-vault on... Then you're screwed.
 
Duff-Man said:
Duff-Man says....careful - you may be walking on thin ice here...asking for assistance with "hacking" etc is not really allowed in the forums here....oh yeah!
Click to expand...


If she has physical access to the computer I find it hard to qualify it as hacking, also the OP said it was on her network, not someone else's.
 
Sun Baked said:
God complex there. :D
Click to expand...
More like a realisitic perspective. :p

The network is your playground, and the computers are generally off-limits unless you are also the computer administrator.
Click to expand...
Depends on the usage agreement you signed when you plugged in.

If a network administrator breaks into a student computer, they likely will be out of a job and in deep crap.
Click to expand...
Again, this depends on the usage agreement you signed. Your specific example isn't applicable to the situation being discussed, however.
 
ChrisBrightwell said:
More like a realisitic perspective. :p

Depends on the usage agreement you signed when you plugged in.

Again, this depends on the usage agreement you signed. Your specific example isn't applicable to the situation being discussed, however.
Click to expand...
So you would be perfectly fine with you ISP breaking into your house and installing spyware on your computer?

Because it's in the ISP agreement.

This is all about expectation of privacy.

A college student in the dorm would get pissed off if the "network administrator and RA" went into his room to do anything to his personal computer. Just because they are network gods, or on the same network.

To do this when the police are sniffing around is insanely stupid ... especially if the computer becomes evidence of a crime.

Even if you are the parent, since some parents have been arrested (or gotten the evidence of crimes tossed) for wiretapping their kids. When there was an expectation of privacy.
 
Just use Apple Remote Desktop. I've got it setup on the G3 downstairs and I can watch what people are doing and control the G3 from upstairs on my PowerBook over the AirPort. I set it all up so that I don't need any permission from the user on the G3 to watch/control their screen.

I use it to quit applications that are eating up my bandwidth. There's nothing more annoying than doing research while someone has left Acquisition downloading a whole lot of stuff :mad:
 
risc said:
Why watch what they are doing? Just block the ports on your router, done!
Click to expand...

Some routers keep logs. Turn that feature on. Then you're just monitoring network traffic, not really spying. And then if you find out that your family member is involved in selling young vietnamese to wealthy japanese businessmen in a global human trafficing scheme..... well i guess for that you'll have to start a new topic.

But really, if she lives in the same house, check it when she goes to the bathroom.
 
Problem is there isn't much spyware available for Macs ;) On a Windows PC I'd install the SubSeven virus complete with keylogger and the ability to remotely see what she sees and the ability to type stuff on her computer and launch and close any program you want.



For a Mac...

Depends how computer literate she is.
Go install VNC on her computer. Set her computer to run VNC as a server in the background. If she knows how to use the computer well she can disable it, but if she's one of those point-and-click-on-an-icon users, she won't notice (I know my mother didn't ;) Bwahaha...I pulled a prank, twitching the mouse whenever she was going to click an icon). Then connect to her computer with your own VNC client and you can watch anything she does.


Apple Remote Desktop does the same thing as VNC.

Alternatively, check if iChat has a chat logger. Or have your router block her PC from iChat.
 
Duff-Man said:
Duff-Man says....careful - you may be walking on thin ice here...asking for assistance with "hacking" etc is not really allowed in the forums here....oh yeah!
Click to expand...

I don't think it's against the rules as (as I understand it) he's talking about installing a keylogger on a computer he legally owns and is run in his own house.
 
goodtimes5 said:
For those of you who are trying to pull me away from surveillance, thanks for offering a way out, but I have decided. I don't want to dwell into details, but I dreadfully need to know what is happening. Asking is out of the question.

I always hear about keystroke trackers, but I have yet to find one for Mac.
Click to expand...
Why? :confused: What are you going to do once you get the "information"? Will it make your life better? Are you invading someone else's privacy based on a hunch? Why don't you just forget about it? If there is some hugely problematic legalities of what's going on with her computer and usage, let the cops know, and you really should be able to talk about it if it has any implications for yourself, or those you love. Take a step back and see if your spying on her is really the right thing to do, or if you're just doing it because you can't be distracted by one of life's pleasures. :confused:
 
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