The article​ “I Know Where You’ve Been Digital Spying and Divorce In The Smartphone

Age” ​Was written by Aarti Shahani on January 4th, 2018. It was published on the website

National Public Radio. The intended audience is anyone with a smartphone and people going

through a divorce or breakup of some sort. The call to write was that someone the author knew

had caught her ex-husband tracking on spying on her. The larger conversation is that anyone

with a smartphone has the threat of being tracked by someone.

Shahani begins the article with a story about a girl named M. M had been through a

divorce and she felt her ex-husband was tracking her. She found a GPS device in her car.

Shahanithen says how laws have not been keeping up with the rapidly advancing technology.

Shahani continues to say how people install spyware on computers. She says spying is typically

illegal, but it can be used as evidence if obtained legally. Shahanisays lawyers can’t stop their

clients from installing spyware. Lawyers have a hard decision of whether to use the spyware as

evidence or not because the lawyer could become liable for wiretapping. Shahani continues the

story of M, she states that she thought her ex got access to her texts. She says that during court

the only accusations addressed were the physical altercations. M had to get a new phone, but

also got rid of the evidence of spyware. Shahanisays how getting a detective is expensive and

it’s easier to get a new device, but you have to get rid of evidence of spying. She concludes by

saying people have been sentenced to jail for spying, but M did not receive justice because the

car was in her ex’s name too and he had the right.

Shahani does a good job of informing the audience of the dangers of GPS tracking and

spyware. She is able to get the message across by the rhetoric, language and tone she used.

She is able to use language to appeal to pathos and ethos, which enables her to make a good

connection to the reader.

 Shahani appeals strongly pathos by trying to tell everyone that has a smartphone or a

computer that they could become a victim of spyware or being tracked. Most people these days

have a smartphone or a computer, and if the rate of spying increases, most people could

become a victim. “In 2012, the last time the Justice Department attempted to quantify stalking, it

estimated that 1.5 percent​ of all adults in the U.S. were victims. That figure more than doubled

— to 3.3 percent — for people who were divorced or separated.” (Shahani). She also counts on

people not wanting their phones or computers to be looked at by someone that they didn’t

approve of. She uses this emotion to make a connection to the reader about the privacy of their

electronics and movements and that they need to be careful and that they need to protect

themselves.

Shahani also had the ability to appeal to ethos. She is able to tell the story of M, in doing

this it gives her credibility by giving sharing real life experiences of someone. By sharing a real

story it helps the audience to be more swayed to her point of view, it does this by showing that

this can happen in the real world and it does to some people. She also has a good use of

language. She uses words that make it seem like she is educated about this subject. “Lawyers

say they can't prevent their clients from using digital spying. Some are willing to accept such

evidence if legally obtained and will even present it in court to help their client's case. Other

lawyers don't want to get near it.” (Shahani). By using things that lawyers have said about the

position they are put it help sway readers to her point of view. Lawyers know the most about

laws and by them saying they don’t really know what to do helps get her point across that the

laws haven’t kept up with the technology.

The layout of this article is good. She says part of the story and then she explains why

this is relevant. This helps to make sure that the audience knows what is happening during the

text and doesn’t get confused.

 Shahani does a good job of getting her main idea across, which is that people need to

be careful with electronics and getting tracked. She does a good job of making the readers

feeling like they need to be paying more attention to who they let use their personal phones and

computers. The tone she uses makes it seem like she is worried that this is going to become a

bigger and bigger problem as the technology becomes better. She did a good job of informing

readers that the laws on the spyware aren’t very good and that lawyer’s don’t really know what

to do when their clients use it. She does a good job of explaining that most of the time people

can get away with using spyware, but there have been cases of people using it and getting jail

time as a result. The language that Shahani uses makes it seem like she has a lot of knowledge

about the subject.

Shahani uses evidence to prove that the laws haven’t kept up with the tech. “[They] are

put in a position of having to choose between a rock and a hard place, because [their] duty is to

zealously advocate for clients which means using every bit of evidence that can help their case.”

(Shahani). This quote shows that laws are behind and lawyers don’t know what they should do

with the evidence they get, or if they should accept it as evidence at all.