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Met Police officer buys malware that monitors messages, calls and more

A London police officer has purchased malware for mobile phones and computers that can intercept calls, emails and more.

Motherboard reported that it is not clear if the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) officer bought the software for personal or official use.

Last week, a hacker targeted FlexiSpy and stole customer data, internal company files and some credit card information. Included in the customer data was the email address and username of an MPS officer, although it's not clear which officer in the Met it is since several share the same name.

Once a user installs FlexiSpy on a mobile operating system or computer, they can monitor a wealth of activity including Facebook, WhatsApp and Skype messages, emails, phone calls, GPS locations and much more.

The Met has faced other allegations as of late. Last month, a MPS police unit used a contact in the Indian police to hire hackers to access the email passwords of environmental activists and journalists, according to an anonymous letter.

“It's critical that the Met and other forces come clean about how they've used hacking tools in the past if they want to gain public acceptance for their deployment now,” said Eric King, a visiting lecturer in surveillance law at Queen Mary University of London.

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