The Egyptian television series "Tale3 Nazel" sparked controversy when its star, Mona Zaki, appeared installing a spying application on her husband's phone to track and monitor his every move with audio and video. Many users wondered about the possibility of this happening in reality and the use of such applications on their phones.
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What was shown in the series "Tale3 Nazel" is not far from reality, despite the exaggeration of the capabilities of the application used and its adaptation to suit the dramatic plot of the series, as there are in fact applications that allow the user to monitor the other party and track his steps, and even see everything that happens on his phone and perhaps control it remotely.
These applications have no direct connection to the era of artificial intelligence we live in. It is not easy to install, develop, or even invent them, as they existed long before its emergence.
What are these spyware applications? Can the average user access them? And how can a victim detect their presence and protect themselves from them?
Not new apps
The series "Tale3 Nazel" is not the first to present or invent the idea of these applications, as they have appeared in many dramas over the years, because they are old applications and their appearance dates back to 1995 under the name of parental control applications.
The information page for the NetNany application indicates that the first version of the parental control application was released in 1995, coinciding with the beginning of the internet revolution and group chat rooms.
The idea of parental control applications is based directly on setting precise restrictions that prevent children or users from accessing certain sites or monitoring what they do on their computers and devices. It can be said that "Net Nanny" was the spark that launched the concept of parental control applications in the form we know today.
Parental control applications have evolved until we reached the era of smartphones, and parents can now install an application on their children’s phones to monitor what they are doing, prevent them from accessing certain things, or even talk to them and use the front and rear cameras and microphone to monitor them.
The line between censorship and espionage
Although the reason behind the emergence of such applications is noble in principle, which is to protect children from the dangers on the Internet, these applications have provoked the ire of privacy advocates and those generally concerned about it around the world.
A study published by ScienceDirect in October 2026 found that the use of parental control apps violates children's privacy because it allows parents to monitor their children's whereabouts at any time, as well as listen to and watch them.
Companies that develop intensive parental control apps try to prevent misuse of the apps in situations not approved by the company, but a PC Magazine report indicates that some outright spyware apps disguise themselves as parental control apps.
While these apps give parents or other users full access to their children’s phones, they also have this access for themselves, and if their data is hacked or stolen, anyone in the world can take advantage of the monitoring tools within them, whether to track location, listen to microphone, or view camera.
Therefore, PC Magazine advises users to stay away from third-party parental control apps and use built-in parental control tools in various apps, which are safer than third-party apps.
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