TikTok Shop is selling GPS trackers marketed with viral videos that have voiceovers explicitly encouraging secretly tracking a romantic partner. Some of the videos have millions of views, and TikTok Shops own metrics show that that more than a hundred thousand of the devices have been sold.One of the accounts 404 Media foundIf your girl says shes just out with friends every night, youd better slap one of these on her carno, it is not an AirTag, its a real GPS tracker, one clip, which has 5 million views, begins. The video shows someone putting a tracker in various hidden locations in a cara plastic bag in the trunk, magnetically attached underneath, or on the inside of the hood. And, unlike AirTags, this thing doesnt make a sound, doesnt send alerts, she will never know its there. Its tiny, black, magnetic, hide it under the seat, in the trunk, wherever. Its got its own SIM so you can track her anywhere in the world, no wifi, no bluetooth, just raw location data whenever you want it. 0:00 /0:40 1 The trackers are advertised as undetectable by Apples FindMy system. Many of the videos encourage people to secretly install the devices in their partners cars if they suspect them for things like being out with friends every night. TikTok deleted the video mentioned above after 404 Media asked the company for comment, but dozens of similar videos remain online, and the trackers are still for sale.This is absolutely being framed as a tool of abuse, said Eva Galperin, co-founder of the Coalition Against Stalkerware and Director of Cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Anything where the justification is catch your partner cheating or get peace of mind about your partner is enabling coercive control, she said.404 Medias reporters have previously written about the use of stalkerware that domestic abusers have used to spy on their partners, and on the use of AirTags to stalk people.404 Media found a handful of accounts promoting these types of trackers, and there are several different versions on the TikTok Shop. Once a user clicks from the videos into TikTok Shop, the algorithm began to show us many more listings. One of the clips we saw has 86,500 likes, and links to a tracker that had 32,500 sales. Another from the same vendor currently has 97,900 sales, and there are several accounts offering the same products with similar branding and scripts. In the comments of one of the videos, a user says I bought some and put it on cars of girls I find attractive at the gym. The original poster responds with Ok . The TikTok content policy says that the platform does not allow any violent threats, promotion of violence, incitement to violence, or promotion of criminal activities that may harm people, animals, or property. We asked TikTok for comment about the videos that had been posted by one of the accounts wed originally seen.A spokesperson for TikTok said "We don't allow content encouraging people to use devices for secret surveillance and have removed this content and banned the account that posted it. We further prohibit the sale of concealed video or audio recording devices on our platform." However, 404 Media was able to find many more almost identical videos on the platform the following day, raising questions over how proactively the platform is monitoring to prevent content like this.The videos skirt around the legality of what they are suggesting. One voiceover asks, over footage of the tracker being attached to a car, its illegal to track people using this thing? I dont know, Im not a lawyer, but Im pretty sure if you stalk someone using this GPS tracker, youre probably gonna get in trouble. The majority of the videos, though, frame the trackers as a way to spy on a partner: men with cheating wives, you might wanna get one of these, one video in Spanish begins. Not everyone who uses this is crazy, they just want answers. Guess what my girlfriend put in my car?, another says. Other videos start with Dont let what happened at the coldplay concert happen to you, She seriously didnt trust me, so you know what, I put one in hers too, or You got a cheating girlfriend?Eleven states explicitly prohibit digital location or GPS tracking in their stalking laws, and a further fifteen states prohibit tracking a vehicle without the consent of the owner. Showing people how to do something that might be illegal is not necessarily illegal, Galperin said. But TikTok is still allowing people to make money by marketing the tech specifically for the use of spying on a partner.Alongside the trackers, the same creators are advertising secret audio-recording devices with similar abusive framing. Your girl always stepping out to take calls? Want to know who shes really talking to? Just place this AI recorder in her carshell never notice, says one post, tagged #husband, #wife, and #coldplay. 0:00 /0:32 1 Video advertising a voice recorder as "the legal way" Another video for the audio devices with 136,000 views describes bugging a cheating girlfriends car: I heard everything she said with that guy. Several videos claim that secretly recording audio is legal (Think your girlfriends cheating? Want to know who the guy is? Then do it the right waylegally and Got a feeling somethings off? Then find out the truththe legal way and Why the hell did I find a used condom in my car?) However, recording a conversation without the awareness of the people involved can often be illegal.Galperin also said that the TikTok videos reflect an extremely common attitude. You would be amazed how many people think stalking, or recordings, or stalkerware is perfectly justified, as long as they think their partner is up to something like cheating, she told 404 Media.A 2021 Kaspersky survey found that 30 percent of 21,000+ respondents found no problem in secretly monitoring their partner under certain circumstances. The survey report also found that 29 percent of respondents who had been digitally stalked had their location tracked.These devices are advertised and sold as undetectable. However, all the examples I found had high numbers of one-star reviews, many of which complained that the trackers did not work as advertised, and defeated the point by alerting people to their presence via Apples FindMy system. The Apple support site for FindMy-enabled devices says that They should not be used to track people, and should not be used to track property that does not belong to you.Reviews for one of the trackers on TikTok ShopIn 2021, 404 Medias Sam Cole reported on Apple AirTags being used to stalk women; in many cases, by attaching them to or hiding them in their cars. For that story, she reviewed 150 police reports of people who had said they were being tracked by current or former partners. After that story, Apple added safety features like phone notifications when an Airtag is nearby, but an ongoing class action lawsuit argues that the devices are still insufficiently stalker proof.Several of the videos were tagged #coldplayEarlier this month, WIRED reported that TikTok shop was selling stickers that could block the recording light on Metas Ray-Ban glasses. Again, many of the reviews found that the product didnt work as advertised, but the platform did allow the stickers to remain available for sale.