日本推出改良版“男友追踪器”

A Japanese firm that marketed a smartphone application to girlfriends and wives who wanted to keep an eye on their philandering partners has had to tone down the service after complaints that it was effectively spying on people.

据英国《每日电讯报》10月17日报道，一家日本公司销售了一款智能手机应用软件，可以让女友和太太们密切关注她们的另一半，这款软件可以对人进行有效监控，但最近在遭到许多投诉后这家公司不得不改善了这项服务。

Tokyo-based Manuscript released on Sunday a new version of the "Kare Log" – meaning "boyfriend log" – after the original application attracted hundreds of complaints from people who discovered it had been surreptitiously installed on their phones, while software security firm McAfee identified the app as a "Potentially Unwanted Programme".

总部位于东京的Manuscript公司上周日发布了新版的“Kare Log”手机应用——即“男友追踪器”——之前的版本收到了数以百计的投诉，因为人们发现当她们把这款应用悄悄装入手机时，防毒安全软件迈克菲会认定它为“潜在的不必要程序”。

Japan's communications ministry has even waded into the debate on privacy, saying in a statement that "The consent of a tracked individual is very important. There were problems with the way that Kare Log was advertised."

日本通讯部门甚至就隐私问题展开了激烈的讨论，在一份报告中声言“追踪个体的行动是否得到同意非常重要。‘Kare Log’的宣传方式是有问题的。”

First launched on August 30, the application could be installed into a smartphone and a computer could then be used to monitor the whereabouts of the device – and, presumably, the owner, through its GPS data.

这款应用软件于8月30日首次推出，可以安装在智能手机上，通过电脑远程监控该设备的所在地——由此根据GPS数据来推测手机主人的下落。

The basic charge was Y525 (￡4.31) a month, which provided the location of the phone and the amount of energy left in the phone's battery. For the ￡15.83 "platinum plan," however, the member would be able to access the list of all the calls that had been made from the phone, the dates, times and durations, as well as other applications that had been installed.

这一应用的基本费用是每月525日元（约合4.31英镑），可以提供手机的位置以及电池的剩余电量。如果选择每月付费15.83英镑的“铂金计划”，用户将可查询所有呼出电话的日期、时间和通话时长，还能查询该手机已经安装的其他应用软件。

Critically, the application did not show an icon on the screen when it was being utilised, meaning that the owner of the smartphone might not even realise that it had been installed.

关键在于，这款应用在使用时不会在屏幕上显示出图标，这意味着智能手机的持有者甚至可能永远不会发现它已经被安装在手机里了。

The initial version of the service was downloaded more than 24,000 times in 10 weeks, Yoshinori Miura, president of Manuscript, told. The new version has already been snapped up 500 times in less than 24 hours, he said.

这一手机应用的第一版在十个星期内被下载超过24000次，Manuscript公司的总裁三浦义德告诉记者，新版在不到24小时内也已经被抢订500次。

"We had around 60 complaints by email but I cannot count how many phone calls we took from people who were unhappy that it had been installed on their phones," Miura admitted, adding that it had also been criticised in online forums.

“我们收到了大约60封投诉的电子邮件，接到的抱怨电话不计其数，人们对自己的手机中被安装了这种应用感到非常不满”，三浦承认，这一应用在网上也遭到了批评。

"The first version was mainly targeted at women who wanted to know where there husband was," said Miura. "But the new version requires a password to access the information and we see it as a way in which couples can share information with each other."

“我们收到了大约60封投诉的电子邮件，接到的抱怨电话不计其数，人们对自己的手机中被安装了这种应用感到非常不满”，三浦承认，这一应用在网上也遭到了批评。

The new service is described as a "location service for lovers," the company said.

该公司宣称，新版服务被称为“情侣定位服务”。