Can Private Investigators Hack Phones?

A question we are often asked is can private investigators hack phones? We touched on this briefly in our blog about the legalities of a private investigator but I think it deserves a whole chapter of it’s own due to the misconceptions surrounding private investigators hacking mobile phones.

If I had a pound for every time I have been asked if I could hack someones phone or track someones phone I would have quite a full piggy bank. Usually the request will come from a partner or spouse that suspects infidelity on their other half and would like to access the messages and call logs on their phones to quench their thirsts for answers to their suspicions. These questions are often asked in good faith and not wanting to break any laws but often because the general public think that we maybe have powers to do such things and be within the law.

Unfortunately we are bound by the same laws as everyone else, in as much as our hands are tied as this would be considered a serious breach of data. M.R.Investigations being a respectable company refuse to get involved in any such illegal activities as this would not only land us in court but would ruin our business. We are there are various software options available for sale on websites but again that is not anything we would get involved with. The only legal way to do this is if the owner of the phone gave us their written permission to analyse the phone. In real life situations the probability of this is very slim.

So you cant hack phones, is there any way round this?

The simple answer is yes. The way round it is to carry out another line of investigation that is legal. Quite often a client will call us with expectations of how we can resolve their issue and for various reasons including legalities we will advise them of another method on how we can resolve their concerns and keeping us and the client on the right side of the law. If you suspect your partner of cheating we can get to the bottom of it using a number of methods other than hacking phones.