People are often told to protect their smartphones from outside hackers, not their partners.
According to Marc Porcar, CEO of QR Code Generator, your significant other could be spying on your text messages, calls and even locations using sophisticated monitoring software — without you even realizing it.
The scary part is that your significant other can install spyware software by downloading an app onto your phone if they have physical access to it.
“Never leave your phone unlocked around someone you don’t fully trust, and always have a screen lock,” Porcar told The Sun
If you suspect someone has access to your phone and is watching your every move, Porcar shared with the outlet the sneaky signs to watch out for.
The first one has to do with your phone’s battery.
If your smartphone is no longer holding a charge and is suddenly dying — it might be due to the spyware draining your battery, “because it’s continuously running in the background,” Porcar said.
“These monitoring apps never enter sleep mode, and they need to constantly maintain active connections to send data to the remote server.”
Another tell-tale sign is if your phone is always hot and never seems to cool down. “Phones become hot when spy applications consume processing resources,” the expert told the outlet.
Porcar also advised suspicious people to check their phone’s data usage because “These applications will show up as consuming data in the background sometimes using substantial amounts if they’re sending images or recording audio.”
Another bizarre way your phone could help you catch your stalking partner is if your device starts randomly lighting up or making sounds when it’s not in use, according to Porcar.
The expert said that some spyware software can allow another person to have remote access to your phone.
“These features allow someone to listen to your conversations or view your surroundings without your knowledge – a serious invasion of privacy,” Porcar told The Sun.
Lastly, if you ever receive a text message with unusual characters or codes — something’s up.
“If you notice messages that arrive and then vanish or see notifications from apps you don’t recognise, these warrant immediate investigation,” he said.
To protect yourself and your phone, “Remove applications you don’t recognise, run security scans using trusted software and check for apps with suspicious permissions,” the expert advised.
While any form of spying or being sneaky with a partner’s phone to see what they’re up to is a violation of trust, people will, of course, still do it.
But sometimes, you don’t have to do much aside from sitting back and watching your partner’s actions do all the talking — especially if you suspect any cheating in your relationship.
If they’re suddenly hiding their phone or never leaving it out of their sight – that could be a tell-tale sign that they’re up to no good.
If they are seen to be “working late” all of a sudden or aren’t as responsive as normal — that is another major red flag.
And if you do finally snoop and notice that their history is deleted — that most likely means they were using an app, searching something — or someone — and they want to cover their tracks from getting caught.
