What to do when your boyfriend/girlfriend tracked your phone? [SOLVED]

A woman in the UK made headlines recently when she confessed that her husband monitors her phone – reading her messages and tracking her every move – using a stealthy tracking app that he installed. She may claim it’s not bothering her, but tracking apps and spyware are a genuine risk, and an extremely unpleasant invasion of privacy for many. Here are our tips on how to recognize if you have a tracking app on your phone, and what to do about it.

How to tell if your cell phone is being spied on

There are several tell-tale signs that suggest your phone is being tracked, tapped or monitored in some way. The signs can be quite subtle but when you know what to look out for, they can also be glaring:

• Unusual sounds during calls

If there are clicking sounds, static or distant voices coming through your phone during conversations it could be a sign that you’re being snooped on. This is not normal for today’s phones on digital networks. It’s a thing of the past and associated with old-style analoguenetworks. If you are hearing fragmentary voices, they may not be in your head; it’s a possibility that your phone has been tapped.

• Decreased battery capacity

Another indication of a bugged cell phone is reduced battery performance. If a mobile phone is tapped it is recording your activities and transmitting them to a third party. This leaves a footprint in the form of increased battery usage and as a result the battery loses life faster. A tapped cell phone can also be constantly recording conversations in the room, even when the phone appears to be idle. And of course as a result it will chew through battery life. You can test this by using your battery in another phone of the same model and compare the results. Is your phone using more battery power than a phone of the same model and software? If so, it could be that your phone is bugged, or it’s defective in some way.

• Phone shows activity when not in use

Is your phone making noises or lighting up its screen when you’re not using it? Call and message alerts to one side your phone should be as silent as a sleeping baby when not in use. Does it also reboot for no reason at all? If so it’s possible that someone has remote access to your device.

• Phone takes a long time to shut down

Before a smart phone shuts down it must complete any tasks that are processing. If your phone is transmitting data to someone it will have to complete the process before it shuts down. As a result if a phone takes longer than usual to turn off especially after a call, text, email or web browsing it could be sending information to a third party.

• Battery temperature feels warm

A further indicator of a possible phone tap is the temperature of your battery. If the phone feels warm even when you haven’t used your phone it could be still in use secretly transmitting data. However this is only a potential sign.

• Receiving unusual texts

Are you receiving strange text messages containing random numbers, symbols or characters? The remote control feature of spy software works by sending secret coded text messages to your phone and in some cases these can be seen if the software is not working correctly. If this happens regularly you could have a spy app on your phone.

• Increased data usage

Some of the less reliable spy apps use extra data to send the information collected from your phone, so look out for any unexplained increase in your monthly data usage. The best spy software programs data usage has been reduced and will be almost impossible to spot but the poor programs will show significant data use.

To be sure you have no additional tracking software installed you may use these 3 methods.

Method 1

1. Check logged Google accounts Settings -> Accounts: be sure to use ONLY YOUR ACCOUNT FOR ALL GOOGLE PRODUCTS/SERVICES (PLAY STORE, MAPS, ANDROID PHONE MANAGER - THIS ONE CAN TRACK DEVICE). To be 100% sure only you are the administrator of your phone, set up a new Google account for yourself.
2. In Settings -> Security -> Device Administrators check programs set as admins -> remove all if there are any. (If you find one PIN protected use Method 2 with hard/factory reset.)
3. Remove ALL additional apps that may be used for tracking Settings -> Apps -> Downloaded - select and remove all, one by one (some might be PIN protected, then go to Method 2).
4. In Settings -> Location Services disable the Access my location option and turn off GPS.
5. Disable Mobile data transfer.
6. Set up and enable PIN and Password (Settings -> Security), enable screen protection with PIN number.

Method 2

Manually back up your data (music, pictures) copy it with file explorer/manager onto an SD card. SMS can be backed up with SMS Backup + App, sync contacts with Google Account. (for security reasons set yourself NEW fresh one and use it to backup restore your data.)

And NOW: Go to Settings -> Backup and Reset choose Factory Data Reset important - uncheck Automatic Restore checkbox. After hard reset choose your own NEW Google account for Google services (set up yourself a new one).

Next set up and enable and Password (Settings -> Security), enable screen protection with PIN.

Additional info

Apps that can track your phone
1. Google Device Manager
2. Kaspersky Mobile Security (This one is tricky and hard to erase. I use this one with my phone.)
3.Avast Mobile Security / Avast Anti-Theft (This one sends an email notification or SMS when the phone leaves the designated area. It also may be hard to remove. You will need a hard reset to get rid of these two). Anti-Theft hides itself as update agent in apps.
4. Track My Phone
5. Phone Locator

...and many many more. Check them in Google Play (You may find one installed on your phone. If so, remove it.)

Method 3 (100% works)

Buy another cheap smart phone and a second SIM card. Install on this new phone, let's call it decoy, software they have installed on your old phone for tracking you (you will find it in Settings -> Apps on your Galaxy), log them in, put into that second phone your old SIM card, redirect all phone calls to you new number which you will use with your factory erased / clean Galaxy with new accounts logged in. Leave the second (decoy) phone in a place you are supposed to be.

If you can't find the app which they are using to track you down or don't have passwords to log them on a second phone, use the reverse process: Buy yourself another phone (almost any teenager can afford to buy a simple smart phone) with a new number (can be prepaid) and redirect all calls onto the new one from your old SIM card and use the old phone as a decoy.

Share and comment down if you have any worked solution