Accountability software, or shameware,
is a type of
surveillance software that records the user's Internet activity and reports it to another person, often called an
accountability partner. This person is often, but not necessarily, an authority figure, such as a parent, teacher, spouse or religious leader. The purpose of such software is to change the user's behavior by exposing them to
shame
Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion often associated with negative self-evaluation; motivation to quit; and feelings of pain, exposure, distrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness.
Definition
Shame is a discrete, basic emotion, d ...
and possibly other consequences for Internet activity that the authority figure deems inappropriate, such as viewing
pornography
Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is Sexual suggestiveness, sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolv ...
.
Accountability software typically functions by continuously making
screenshots of the user's mobile phone or computer screen and monitoring their internet traffic. It checks both for keywords (such as "gay" or "porn") and images associated with the behavior the software is intended to detect. If such content is found, the software generates a report that is transmitted to the authority figure controlling the software, who may then confront the user about their activity. The software may also double as
content-control software
An Internet filter is software that restricts or controls the content an Internet user is capable to access, especially when utilized to restrict material delivered over the Internet via the Web, Email, or other means. Such restrictions can be appl ...
.
As of 2022, a "multimillion-dollar ecosystem"
of accountability software products exists, marketed to parents and churches. The largest users of accountability software are religious groups and families.
Products in this field include Fortify, Accountable2You, EverAccountable, and Covenant Eyes; there are also free options, including Net Responsibility (for Mac OS and Linux) and the free version of
X3watch (for Windows and Mac OS).
Most of these products implement a "
zero-tolerance" approach to pornography, and some are marketed as a way to combat "
pornography addiction", as in the case of Covenant Eyes, which made roughly
US$
The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
4 million in 2008, from around 56,000
subscriptions.
Following a ''
Wired
Wired may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976
* ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993
* ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017
* "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street''
* "Wired ...
'' report in 2022, Google removed Covenant Eyes and Accountable2You from the
Google Play store because these apps used
accessibility functionalities for surveillance purposes in a manner prohibited by Google,
but Covenant Eyes was later reinstated.
See also
*
Content-control software
An Internet filter is software that restricts or controls the content an Internet user is capable to access, especially when utilized to restrict material delivered over the Internet via the Web, Email, or other means. Such restrictions can be appl ...
*
Employee monitoring
Employee monitoring is the (often automated) surveillance of workers' activity. Organizations engage in employee monitoring for different reasons, such as to track performance, avoid legal liability, protect trade secrets, or address other securi ...
*
Employee monitoring software
*
Comparison of content-control software and providers (incl. parental control software)
*
Opposition to pornography
*
Parental controls
*
Pornography addiction
*
Sexaholics Anonymous
References
{{reflist
Computer surveillance