A secret app that can help you catch a cheating partner

People don't even have to worry about their partner finding out that the app has been downloaded as the icon does not appear on the home screen of the phone.

The user has to enter a secret code to access the Cate app, which stands for "Call and Text Eraser", the Daily Mail reported.

If suppose your partner happens to walk in while you are reading texts from their secret lover, a simple shake of the phone will make it all disappear.

However, the app can also benefit cheaters as they 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.

Advertised with the slogan, "Love is blind, we keep it that way!", the smartphone app which costs 3 pounds to download, is the brainchild of Boston-based entrepreneur of Indian-origin, Neal Desai.

The 25-year-old student bought the app for 11,000 pounds from a Miami police officer, who developed the programme 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 44,000 pounds.

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

While critics have pointed out the "morality" of his product, Desai insists there are legitimate reasons for using his app, which he said 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," Desai was quoted 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," Desai said.