Security concerns have been raised about US House Speaker Mike Johnson’s reported use of a “porn accountability app” that automatically takes screenshots of his phone. 

Mr Johnson was selected as US House of Representative Speaker on October 25th, but a video from 2022 has raised concerns about his data security. 

In a panel, he explained he used an app called Covenant Eyes that sends “accountability reports” to his son. 

WIRED Magazine writer Dhruv Mehrotra told Moncrieff exactly how this app works. 

“Once you install it on your phone it will take screenshots of everything you do on your device, at least once per minute,” he said. 

“It will run a machine-learning algorithm on those screenshots to determine whether the things you’re looking at are pornographic or not. 

“It sends the screenshots to an accountability partner, who will review those screenshots and if they find you are looking at something pornographic, they’re supposed to talk to you about it.” 

Accountability partner

Mr Johnson said in 2022 his then-17-year-old son was his accountability partner and vice versa. 

“I’m proud to tell you my son has got a clean slate,” he said at the time. 

Mr Mehrotra said the app, which costs $17 (€16) a month, is particularly popular among the Christian Evangelical community in the US. 

“I've spoken to many people who use the app not because they think they have a porn addiction, but rather it’s a way to ‘keep each other accountable’ for the things they look at on the internet,” he said. 

“These apps are marketed to the religious community in the US largely, but what I found in my reporting that they sort of expanded out of that. 

“Parole offices in the US are using it to monitor people pretrial... the mission has expanded beyond religion.” 

Data security

While it is unclear whether Mr Johnson still uses Covenant Eyes, but many people are concerned about data security if he still uses it as US House Speaker. 

The original post resharing Mr Johnson’s video said, “A US Congressman is allowing a third-party tech company to scan all of his electronic devices daily and then uploading reports to his son about what he's watching or not watching.” 

Mr Mehrotra said the security concern is a “huge part of the problem” of Mr Johnson using this app. 

“Every single thing he looks at on his phone, if he still has the app, is being sent to a third party, to another company, who can review that content,” he said. 

“They said they will only store blurred versions of the screenshots but in reports I’ve seen they're blurred but it's possible often to determine information.” 

Covenant Eyes claim it deletes all content from its server after 30 days.  

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