Popular Spy Apps Cocospy, Spyic, and Spyzie Shut Down After Major Data Breach

Three well-known phone spying apps — Cocospy, Spyic, and Spyzie — have suddenly gone offline after being caught spying on millions of phones. These apps, known as stalkerware, secretly collected personal data like messages, photos, call logs, and real-time locations without the user’s knowledge.

The apps were nearly identical but used different brand names. They were designed to stay hidden on phones, making them hard to detect while continuing to send personal data to the person who installed them.

Earlier this year, a security researcher discovered a serious flaw in these apps. The flaw allowed anyone to access private data from phones with these apps installed. The researcher also found a list of 3.2 million email addresses belonging to users who signed up to use these spying tools. This data was later shared with the website Have I Been Pwned, which helps people check if their information has been exposed in a breach.

After this discovery was reported by TechCrunch, the apps suddenly stopped working. Their websites disappeared, and their cloud data, which was stored on Amazon servers, was deleted. The operators behind these apps could not be contacted, and it’s unclear why exactly the services were shut down.

This is not the first time a spy app has shut down after a hack. Other spyware companies like LetMeSpy and pcTattletale also went out of business after data breaches exposed their users and victims.

Stalkerware apps are often marketed as parental control tools but are widely misused to secretly track partners or spouses. This kind of spying is illegal and goes against the rules of app stores and web hosts.

Even though these three apps are now offline, people who may have been targeted should still check their phones. To detect these apps on an Android device, dial ✱✱001✱✱ and press the call button. If the app is installed, it may appear as a generic-looking app called “System Service”, which you should delete immediately.

Always be cautious about apps installed on your phone and regularly check for anything suspicious.