How to Find Hidden Spy Apps on Your Phone

Every day, around 24,000 rogue mobile applications are banned, making malware a massive and rising problem. Fortunately, there are several methods for detecting and removing spyware from your phone.

Strange phone behavior: Is your phone turning on or off by itself, or have you discovered applications on your phone that you did not install? Any unexpected activity might suggest that your phone has become infected.

Unexpected noises when on the phone: If you hear beeps or other weird noises while on the phone, it might signify that someone is recording you. This, however, might just be due to inadequate reception.

Increased data usage: Spyware accesses and shares the information it obtains from your device using data. If you observe an odd spike in your data use, spyware on your phone might be the source of the problem.

Unusual battery drain: Is the battery on your smartphone draining quicker than usual? This might indicate the presence of spyware in the background. Of course, it may be an old or faulty battery or a new app you’ve lately loaded. Taking precautions, on the other hand, has never injured anyone.

When your phone is turned off: Have you ever noticed it ringing or producing noises while it’s not in use? This might signal that you are being watched, as your phone should not produce any noises when it is inactive (apart from notification sounds).

Unfortunately, none of these methods are definitive in determining whether or not your phone is infected with spyware. The easiest approach to verify is to use a spyware scanner to detect any hidden programs.

How to Protect Your Android Phone from Spyware
There are several actions you can take to keep malware from infecting your Android phone. Here are a few pointers:

Never click links in emails unless you completely trust the sender and understand what you’re doing.
Download software only from trusted sources, such as the Google Play Store. Apps obtained from other sources may include spyware.

Always read app reviews before installing an app, since if others have had problems with malware, the app’s ratings will often reflect this.

How to Detect Hidden Android Spy Apps
If you’re wondering how to locate hidden spy programs on Android, you may do a series of manual tests. When looking for hidden surveillance applications on your phone, keep the following in mind:

Examine your applications
Examine the applications on your phone (including those in folders) to check if there are any that you don’t recall downloading or that you don’t recognize. Most of us have folders full of games or programs we haven’t used in a long time.

Keep an eye out for location monitoring.
When an app uses your device’s location, you’ll see a little teardrop sign in your phone’s notification bar. If you see this while you aren’t using applications that are permitted to access location data, it might mean malware is operating and tracking your whereabouts.

Examine your permissions.
Checking whether applications can access your location, camera, or microphone might help you establish if any hidden spy apps for Android are secretly watching you.