TechCrunch
TechCrunch has been named in 2 documented digital harm incidents. The most common harm domain is Privacy & Surveillance.
Documented Incidents
2Founder of pcTattletale pleads guilty to hacking and selling stalkerware
Bryan Fleming, the founder of U.S. spyware firm pcTattletale, pleaded guilty in a San Diego federal court to charges of computer hacking, illegal sale and advertising of surveillance software, and conspiracy. The plea follows a Homeland Security Investigations probe that began in 2021 after uncovering more than 100 stalkerware websites linked to the company. pcTattletale shut down in 2024 after a data breach exposed information on over 138,000 customers, and federal agents later raided Fleming’s home in Michigan. This marks the first successful U.S. federal prosecution of a stalkerware operator in over a decade.
Stalkerware apps Cocospy and Spyic data breach exposes 2.65 million user accounts
Security researchers discovered a vulnerability in the stalkerware apps Cocospy and Spyic that allowed anyone to download personal data, including messages, photos, call logs and the email addresses of registered users. By exploiting the flaw, they scraped roughly 1.81 million Cocospy and 880,000 Spyic email addresses (about 2.65 million unique accounts) and shared the list with the Have I Been Pwned service. The apps route traffic through Cloudflare and store data on Amazon Web Services, and the breach is linked to the China‑based developer 711.icu; the operators have not responded to requests for comment and the bug remains unpatched.