TikTok Faces Complaint Over Ads Promoting GPS Tracker for Spousal Surveillance
Madrid – Consumer rights organization FACUA has filed a formal complaint with Spanish authorities against TikTok for allowing advertisements of a GPS tracking device marketed as a tool to monitor and “hunt” unfaithful partners. The organization alleges the ads promote harassment,violate privacy,and constitute illicit advertising under Spanish law.
The controversy centers on advertisements appearing on the platform featuring a mini GPS device pitched with language explicitly targeting suspicions of infidelity. One TikTok account, @Mango_Goodman, described the device as capable of protecting children and securing cars, but also “hunt[ing] who is deceiving you!” Another video featured a voiceover suggesting the device could be used to catch a cheating wife, stating, “Sometimes the truth is challenging to accept, but you need to know it.”
FACUA spokesman Rubén Sánchez condemned the advertisements, stating, “Beyond machismo, they are directly promoting harassment, surveillance practices.” He argues the product should be presented as a vehicle tracking device,with a clear warning against its use for spying on individuals without their consent - a warning he says is conspicuously absent.
The complaint highlights TikTok’s own content moderation standards, which pledge to remove content “that promotes violence, hatred or misinformation,” and criticizes the platform for failing to act. “There is no control over an extraordinarily sensitive product,” Sánchez asserted.
FACUA points to Spain‘s General Advertising Law of 1988, specifically Article 3, which prohibits advertising that “attentive[s] against the dignity of the person or violates the values and rights recognized in the Spanish constitution.” The organization is requesting an examination into the advertisement and sale of the device, and the opening of sanctioning proceedings.
This complaint follows a similar action FACUA took last week against online retailer Temu for advertising a comparable tracking device. Though, Sánchez indicated the tiktok advertisements are “much stronger” in their promotion of perhaps illegal and harmful behavior. He also suggested the advertising accounts may be unaware they are promoting a crime, even while exhibiting “clearly macho behavior.”
