French remote control solutions company Fireworld has recently been criticized after advertising its PC spying software as a tool that can be used to see if a parent"s child is gay.
Initially discovered by LGBT rights group L"Amicale des jeunes du Refuge on Twitter, they found an article on the company"s website that offered tips on finding out through the program if their son is homosexual. These include hacking his Facebook account, checking his private messages, and seeing if he had visited gay websites.
Other clues provided by the writeup include "taking good care of himself", being more interested in reading and theatre than in football, being shy as a young boy, having certain piercings and liking female singers and divas. As the BBC points out, the article makes no mention of female homosexuality.
The blog entry even took the time to emphasize that a son being gay hinders the possibility of being grandparents. "So you really want to make sure your son"s sexual orientation, because yes, you"re certainly saying that if he"s gay, you may never be grandparents and you will not have the happiness of knowing your grandchildren," the article roughly translates.
With all these in consideration, the article says that using the spying software is a good way to monitor a male child"s activity on the internet.
Fireworld has since taken down the article after it received backlash. "These articles were for the sole purpose of improving SEO & were not intended to be read by humans," the company said, in an email response to L"Amicale. "We regret not having reflected on the consequences of this type of content. We sincerely apologise to all those who may have felt offended by this content."
While the homophobic content has been taken out already, the company still advertises its software as a way to spy on employees, teenage offsprings, or even detect infidelity in a marriage. Fireworld insists, however, that using the product for espionage purposes is illegal and could expose a user to criminal liabilities.
Source: BBC