2007/08/09

ScreenSpy: Record what your Computer is Doing while you are Away

I recently wrote a small program in Java that takes a screenshot every second or so and sends it to a FTP of your choice. It could be used to check which websites you children are visiting when you are away, or if they are approached by inappropriate individuals on myspace. I didn't make it stealthy, the goal is to give an incentive to your youngsters not to visit prohibited websites, not to catch them being naughty.

You can download it here:
ScreenSpy v1.0 (Win, Unix, MacOS) -- Includes source code.

Usage:

java -jar ScreenSpy.jar ftp.domain.com username password

or, for the win32 .exe:

Screenspy.exe ftp.domain.com username password
It will run on all major platforms give you have a java virtual machine installed (www.java.com). I also included a win32 binary.

Have fun!

By the way, I am looking for others fellow bloggers to contribute to this blog or to contribute to the source code of my projects. Leave a comment if interested.

*Q&A*

Matt:
If the screen has been idle, does it save space not hold off sending anything?

A:
Unfortunately not. It is a feature that could be added. Anyone has a good idea on how to implement that in Java? Save checksums of the pictures and compare them? If lots of people feel strongly about this I might try to find a solution...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

If the screen has been idle, does it save space not hold off sending anything.

Anonymous said...

That is rather scary, you are basically teaching your children to be used to being monitored all the time. When they grow up, they won't object to cameras being everywhere. Good bye privacy, welcome 1984...