La to maximise security and your enjoyment. and privacy They are, today more than ever, priority issues when connecting and browsing the Internet. Most people care about having their computer well protected, but sometimes they neglect monitoring their smartphones. However, the risk of being infected by malware or worse is exactly the same. Many times we realize it too late. If you have doubts about this, in this article we are going to answer the question of How to know if they control your cell phone.
Before turning on the alarm light, it must be said that the fact that our mobile phone is spied on or hacked is quite uncommon, although not impossible. Furthermore, when this happens, there are a number of clues that warn us that we have a problem. It is enough to be a little observant to detect them and, if necessary, remedy them.
Some clues that indicate that our mobile phone is being spied on
Below are some of the signs to pay attention to to suspect that something strange is happening. How do you know if your cell phone is controlled? If several of the following circumstances come together, there is a good chance that this will be the case:
Battery drains too quickly
It is true that, after a certain time, all smartphone batteries begin to fail and their lifespan is increasingly shorter. However, this deterioration is slow and progressive. If you see that the battery suddenly starts to behave strangely, you have to start distrusting.
When a spy app has been installed on our phone, it is normal for it to work non-stop, even if it runs in the background. That's why it ends up consuming a lot of energy, draining the battery quickly.
The phone overheats frequently
This is one more consequence of the above. We already know that the mobile temperature It increases when we use it continuously and intensely (for example, when we play), but if we see this happening when we barely use it, it is an unequivocal sign that there is a program using its resources.
Do not forget that overheating can seriously damage the battery and even the phone itself, so we must add this concern to knowing that someone is controlling our device.
The phone restarts itself
A sudden restart of the smartphone is not uncommon, it may be due to a previously scheduled update. What should start to worry us is when those spontaneous restarts occur too frequently. It is a clear alarm signal: someone may be controlling our phone remotely through a program installed without our permission.
Strange sounds are heard during calls
We do not want to fuel paranoia, but when a cell phone is being spied on or monitored by an external program, there are often strange sounds that we can hear perfectly during voice calls. It should be noted that these things, quite common in the past, no longer occur in today's mobile phones, whose overall quality is rarely affected by interference.
Other warning signs
In addition to these, there are other signs (some more subtle than others) that we must pay attention to to know if our mobile phone is being controlled by third parties. This is a small list of warnings that we should not miss:
- Can't turn off phone, because, for no apparent reason, the buttons do not respond.
- There are unknown applications installed on our device. These are not the ones that come standard, nor have they been incorporated by us.
- Too high data consumption is occurring.
- Our search and Internet history is full of unknown sites, websites that we have never visited.
- We receive strange messages from unknown numbers, often rows of meaningless letters, numbers and symbols.
- The overall performance of the phone is bad: it is very slow, applications do not load, etc.
And if we still have some doubts, a good way to know if your cell phone is controlled from an installed program is start phone in safe mode. This mode only uses the system's own apps: if we try it and everything works normally, we will know for sure that there is a problem to solve.
Some effective solutions
Once we have verified with logical concern that our mobile phone is being controlled by something or someone other than us, it is time to act. These are some of the solutions we can try. In most cases, applying them will be enough to end the problem:
Review app permissions
Although in the latest versions that incorporate the most modern smartphones this task is executed automatically, it never hurts to perform a manual control. This is a good way to detect intrusive apps and check the permissions of others. This is how you do it:
- En Android You have to go to the Settings menu and then select "Applications". A list will open with all the apps installed on the phone. It's about reviewing them one by one.
- En iOS You have to go to Settings and from there to “Privacy and security”. Then we use the "Location" or "Tracking" option to find the apps that have these permissions and, if necessary, revoke them. There is also the possibility to reset all settings quickly and manage who we share access and data with.
Factory reset
It is the most drastic and effective method of putting an end to this external control of our mobile phone that can pose so many threats to us. Factory reset It means returning the mobile phone to its original state, free of malware and spyware. Before doing so, it is recommended make a backup of all the documents and photos that we have saved in the phone's memory.
The steps to perform a factory reset may vary slightly from model to model, but are basically the same:
- First you have to go to the configuration menu of your mobile.
- Then we have to look for the option "About of the phone" where you will find the basic information of the device and some advanced options.
- Then we select the option «Factory restoration».
- A new window opens with a list of the elements that we want to delete from the mobile. Here you have to apply the option «Delete all data«. The system will request confirmation.
- Finally, we restart the phone.
One last piece of advice: It is always better to prevent
To avoid reaching the situations that we have described at the beginning of the post, the most sensible thing is always apply common sense and prevent these kinds of security and privacy problems. The most basic precautions They involve not installing apps of unknown origin and not giving unnecessary permissions to all the applications we have installed. This way we will avoid the problem and the risk.