SpyBubble, Mobile Spy and other tools also let you grab text messages, both incoming and outgoing. The messages can also be made available to law enforcement agencies by carriers -- and, presumably, they'd also be available to any hacker who can access the carriers' databases.

Apps like SpyBubble and Mobile Spy also deliver a large number of data types from victims' smartphones, including complete call and SMS logs, all contacts, all email, all URLs visited on a browser (including search queries, which are displayed in URLs), all photos and videos taken with phones, and more.

If cheesy apps like those can do it, you can be sure that sophisticated hackers, spy agencies, organized crime groups and others can do it, too.