How do I know if someone is spying on me via my phone?

There are many ways to be stalked or spied on using only your phone. If someone wants to stalk you for any reason, they can do it in several different, even primitive ways. For example, they can hide an old cell phone with GPS in their car and track their movements through the most common location sharing via, for example, Google or even WhatsApp.

Ways to spy on your cell phone

If the stalker wants to go to a higher level, stalk you even when you are not in the car, or follow you wherever you go, they may use more sophisticated methods. For example, if you accidentally left your unlocked phone on the table while you went to the bathroom, or the stalker knows your access code, they can install a tracking application on your cell phone in only a minute or two. And not just for tracking. Such applications, depending on the level of sophistication, also have the ability to turn on the device’s microphone, so that they can later hear what you were saying, regardless of whether it is a phone call or a live conversation while your device is on the desk.

Some applications can turn on your phone camera without you even realizing it. Therefore, the person who is spying on you can often have visual details from your life. However, if you occasionally look at your device settings and find a suspicious application, just delete it and the stalker is instantly left without the tools for his dirty intentions. However, it’s clear that most users don’t even know which applications they have installed, and after a while, they probably don’t even know what they are used for. If you belong to this group, you are an excellent target for someone who wants to spy on you.

You usually unknowingly install spyware yourself

It should be noted that even such applications are not omnipotent, especially not such as shown in the Netflix series “You”. However, we cannot say that something similar is not impossible in real life. Applications for this purpose normally exist in the form of malware and spyware and are far more sophisticated. Also, they will not be installed on your cell phone by the stalker personally, but rather by you, when you visit untrusted websites and click on suspicious links. In this case, the spyware is installed in the background, so you don’t see the process. The permissions it gets are an integral part of some other application you downloaded before. For example, if you fall for one of the virus “cleaners” or a prize game, and you install such an application, and give it all the permissions it asks for, you have likely installed malware or spyware as well.

The most common ways to spy on a cell phone

Likewise, it is not necessarily about virus and malware cleaners, but also some trivial applications. If a chat or a social network app asks for permission to access your location or microphone during installation, it is normal that you will allow it. However, if such permission is requested by e.g. some alternative launcher, flashlight, or distance meter, it is quite certain that it is a tool with dangerous intentions, which we have already written about countless times.

It should be noted that most sophisticated spyware applications are not there to track where you move or what type. Their purpose is to collect as much personal data as possible about you, which is later sold to third parties, who use it mainly for marketing purposes. There is certainly a part of them that can be classified as ransomware, or blackmail. Of course, there are also those created to steal identities and bank accounts, but they can be quickly found and eliminated.

How to recognize that someone is stalking or spying on you via mobile phone?

Be it any simple or sophisticated method, they all have one thing in common. In any of the mentioned cases, your device will show certain patterns of behavior. It may take some time for you to notice them, but to help you with that, below are some of the most common warning signs that your phone could be a tracking device, or that someone or something is using it to spy on you.

Unusual battery drain

If you notice that your phone’s battery is draining unusually quickly, and may even have “jumps” in the discharge cycle, the reason for this can be a background process, which by its very nature must often be intensive. So, if the battery discharge pattern has suddenly changed compared to your usual one, it is very likely that you have some kind of activity on your device that is collecting data from you, and in some cases, tracking or spying on you. This is the case if the battery is inexplicably draining while the phone is in idle mode.

The appearance of unusual applications and strange behavior

If you have more than 20 or 30 applications installed on your phone, it is unlikely that you will notice any that you did not choose yourself. If you do, delete them immediately. Otherwise, there is a chance that their behavior will give them away. Such applications often imitate notifications from other applications, such as Google Chrome, if you have allowed a website to send you notifications.

If such notifications are something you are used to, it is possible that by clicking on it you inadvertently activate one of the spying capabilities of the hidden application. This is precisely why it would be wise to avoid the notifications that many websites offer through the browser. If you still if you want to use them, be extra careful.

When it comes to unusual application behavior, they may start to freeze or crash inexplicably. If this happens more often than you’re used to, there is a chance that you have malware installed on your device, which can also be spyware.

Unusual increase in data usage

Regardless of whether it is WiFi or mobile data that you have purchased from your provider, an unusual increase in data usage indicates many suspicious activities. Even in simple cases, for example, if someone has secretly installed a location tracking application on you, you should notice an increase in data usage.

In the case of more sophisticated spyware applications, irregular patterns in data usage can also occur. For this reason, it is important to check the traffic, not only of mobile data but also of that on the WiFi network.

For such cases, there is a whole range of widgets that can display real-time usage on the home screen. However, you must also be careful, especially the permissions they request during installation, so as not to install another spyware application. If the application/widget for monitoring traffic usage asks for permission to access mobile data and the WiFi network, this is completely normal, because otherwise, it will not work. However, if it asks for permission to access your location, camera, microphone, and/or phone calls, it is obvious that its primary purpose is completely different from what it claims.

Also, if you notice that your device is sending and receiving a large amount of data while it is in standby mode, or if it is just lying on a table, it may be sending your data to the spy application server at that very moment. Of course, it could also be any other activity of the most common malware, but this is also a sign that you need to take action.

Unusual noises and echoes during a phone conversation

Truth be told, this is often the case even when no one is listening to your calls, and you can thank the quality of your operator’s signal at a specific location. You can also sometimes hear an echo when talking to any customer service agents since these conversations are recorded. However, if you also hear unusual noises and echoes while talking to others, there is a high possibility that someone is listening to your conversation.

Of course, the police with a court warrant can and do have the right to wiretap you, but in the case of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, we saw that the US NSA has similar capabilities, without the warrant, for that matter. But don’t worry, unless you are a politically exposed person, a member of the Soprano family, you are most likely not spied on.

If you consider yourself unimportant to the police and the intelligence agencies, and you hear echoes and noises on your cell phone, there is a certain chance that someone less powerful, but still capable of installing spyware on your phone, is eavesdropping on you.

Unusual text messages

This shouldn’t be hard to notice. If someone who is not in your contacts sends you a text message, and its content asks you to take some action (clicking on a link, saving an email address or contact, replying to a message, etc.), and you do one of those things, congratulations! You have just compromised yourself or exposed yourself to a whole spectrum of malicious software that is just waiting for you to start typing your credit card PIN, password to access a service, or any other sensitive information into one of the existing applications on your device.

Increased or unexplained storage usage

This is a common indicator that your phone has accumulated too much junk. From cache files, unnecessary screenshots, various fragments of uninstalled applications, etc. In case you take care of the above, but at some point, you notice that the storage memory is inexplicably filling up, there is also a chance that you have some malware or spyware installed. Namely, this kind of software often uses a large amount of memory for its dirty work, so your 256 GB from the moment of purchase can very quickly turn into 50-60 GB of free space, without you having recorded a single 4K video. If you are investigating this problem using classic File Explorers, keep in mind that it will not detect such data. It may display it in a way that you have no idea what it is, but you should not delete it because it may be an integral part of another application.

Unexpected phone reset

Manufacturers recommend resetting smartphones at least once a week. I’m not talking about hard or factory reset, or returning to factory settings, but simply a “restart”. It is useful because it can also often solve problems with applications, for example when they freeze or do not work properly.

Sometimes a cell phone can reset itself. This case is not common, but it can be caused by a buggy application. If you remove or upgrade such an application, the problem is usually solved.

However, if you notice that your phone is resetting itself once or more times a day, it’s a good sign that you’re dealing with malware that may also contain spyware.

How do I protect myself from spying on my phone?

Use reliable malware cleaning tools, those with the best ratings on Google Play and with the highest amount of downloads.

It’s also important to be careful about which sites you visit and which links you click, because better safe than sorry.

Finally, even the best applications for cleaning malware, viruses, worms, etc. are not omnipotent, which means that they can miss something. So, if you notice the same activity on your device after cleaning, the only option left is to restore it to factory settings. I would like to point out once again that in this case, it is not wise to make a backup and restore it later, precisely because it can pick up malware and will just return it to you later. So, you’ve been trying for nothing.

Assuming that you have enabled synchronization of contacts, calendars, photos, and other essential data via Google or another reliable service, the smartest thing to do is set up the device ad a new one.