3 tricks to figure out if your smartphone is being bugged

Are you worried someone is spying on you thanks to your smartphone? Here are three checks you can do to understand if your phone has been turned into a spy device

In the memory of a smartphone, nowadays, you can find a bit of everything. From vacation photos to work documents, through messages exchanged with friends, acquaintances and office colleagues. And that's not all: in the device there are also the credentials to access your bank profile and other very important information.

So don't be surprised if there are hackers and cybercriminals ready to do anything to be able to spy on the smartphones of poor (and unaware) unfortunate people. If you have the doubt that someone is spying on you, below you will find three tricks to understand if your smartphone is intercepted or not. These are "basic" tips, which do not require any advanced technical knowledge or special procedures. In short, they are within everyone's reach.

Excessive battery and data consumption

The first alarm bell to understand if the smartphone is intercepted and spied on by someone is "sounded" by excessive battery and data consumption. If, all of a sudden, the smartphone's battery starts to drain much faster than in previous days, it may be that there is an "external element" that has led to this change. In order for a spy app to work properly, it must be active at all times, so that it can record our every move or communication. This leads to an increase in the "energy demand" of the device, with negative effects on battery life.

At the same time, this stolen information must be somehow sent to those who are keeping an eye on us. The easiest way to do this is to take advantage of the Internet connectivity of your cell phone. If, halfway through the month, you find yourself with the gigabytes of the data threshold totally consumed without your browsing habits having changed (for example, you've started watching more Instagram Stories), then it's likely that someone else is using it instead of you.

Noises during calls

Have you been hearing strange noises during calls for a few days now? There are three hypotheses: the antennas of your cell phone have reception problems (i.e., they are breaking down); the operator's network has some problem in your area; someone is spying on your smartphone. The second hypothesis can be checked very simply: call the operator's service center and ask if there are any known problems in the area where you live. If not, the first and the third hypothesis remain in place, but the clues lead strongly towards the latter hypothesis.

Strange typos

Has your phone's auto-corrector started giving you numbers and you can't explain why? It could be that someone has installed a keylogger on your smartphone and is recording everything you type, hoping to intercept some interesting information such as email or social credentials, messages exchanged with your colleagues and friends or home banking passwords.