Symbian has defended its Symbian Signed programme against allegations that it is 'signing off' mobile malware. 

The row started over the Flexispy application which is advertised as a way to check whether your partner is cheating on you. 

Flexispy forwards any SMS or email message sent on the phone to a third party, and monitors the phone's call logs.

"We think Flexispy should be classed as malware," said Peter Harrison, chief technical officer at mobile antivirus firm UMU." It seems that being Symbian Signed is not a guarantee that the software is not malicious."

Bruce Carney, director of development programs and services at Symbian, has defended the application, saying that it should not be classed as malware.

"It is a liberal use of terminology. It is a bit of a grey area, an application which in the wrong hands could be used maliciously," he told vnunet.com.

"It is like another application we have come across which allows the phone to be used as a baby alarm. It is a great application but could equally be left in a girl's changing room and used maliciously."

Carney said that as part of the Symbian Signed process all applications are run through a McAfee antivirus scanner to check for malicious content.

The application could also not be distributed virally and would always appear in the phone's task list, so the user would see it running.

"Symbian is not in the business of censoring applications," he concluded. " We want high quality applications from reliable suppliers."