[ridgewell]

I'm not familiar with this app but based on the read, it sounds like they're essentially relying on someone to sneak into the target's phone, install an apk with a 'Settings' logo, where you grant it all permissions (I assume the installer facilitates the process of manually granting full permissions for each permissions type and disabling battery optimization). Android does allow you to effectively delegate full permissions to an app like that, albeit in a manual way.

[afarah1]

Camera and microphone usage should be hard-wired to an LED

[Polizeiposaune]

and a switch which has a physical air gap when off.

[roland35]

I wonder if it would show up in periodic permissions scans done by android. Hopefully!

But as the TechCrunch author stated, oftentimes alerting the stalker can be dangerous for the victim.