The cheat's app: Adulterers can make lovers' calls disappear

A new phone application has been developed that helps cheating overs keep their affairs secret.

The Cate app, which stands for "Call and Text Eraser", creates an invisible log of calls and text messages and can hide specific numbers from the contacts list.

The screen will never indicate who has called and at the touch of a button, all private information can be wiped from the phone forever.

Unlike other apps, the Cate icon does not appear on the home screen and if someone walks in while the cheat is reading their illicit texts, a simple shake of the phone will make it all disappear.

For added confidence, the adulterer has to enter a secret code to access the app and all the hidden features it provides.

Advertised with the slogan "Love is blind, we keep it that way!" the smartphone app, which costs 3 pounds (4.99 dollars) to download, is the brainchild of Boston entrepreneur Neal Desai.

The 25-year-old student bought the app for 11,000 pounds from a Miami police officer, who developed the program after seeing his friend dragged through the divorce court thanks to incriminating text messages on his phone.

Desai then decided to expand the business by appearing on 'Shark Tank', the American equivalent of BBC2's 'Dragon's Den' and ended up securing 70,000 dollars (44,000 pounds).

During the pitch he claimed that professional golfer Tiger Woods, who famously cheated numerous times on his wife Elin Norgegren, would actually still be married if he had bought the Cate app.

Since the app was launched three weeks ago, it has been downloaded 10,000 times and so far 70 percent of the purchases have been by women.

While critics have pointed out the "morality" of his product, Desai insists that there are legitimate reasons for using his app, which he says is there to protect someone's privacy.

"It's a privacy app, essentially, and as with every technology that involves privacy, there is good with the bad," the Daily Mail quoted Desai as telling The Sunday Times.

"But it is also labelled a privacy application and could have uses for government officials, or corporate business, or for lawyers whose entire business is based on keeping things confidential," he added.