No one is protected 100% from cyber espionage and theft of sensitive data from Android devices. While you’re confidently using your phone to make calls, take pictures, or scroll down your Instagram feed, someone might be following you. These can be people that follow your smartphone activity with your knowledge or unauthorized spies. Let’s discuss four ways someone can snoop on your Android device without your consent.
1. Google Find My Device
Google Find My Device is a built-in tool that allows Android phone owners to track the location of their devices if they get stolen. The tool shows the phone’s real-time location only if connected to the Internet. If not, you’ll see its last known location. Go to google.com/android/find, log in to your Google account, and see where your phone is.
However, the tool can easily turn into a spy program if someone has access to your Google account. Besides the phone’s whereabouts, the tool will also provide the spies with info about your phone’s network, battery status, and hardware details. They can also lock your device or delete its content remotely.
2. Google Timeline
Google Timeline is another tool that allows imposters to get unauthorized information about your location. They can do it by following these simple steps:
- Open Google Maps on their browsers
- Click the hamburger menu on the left-hand side of the screen
- Click “Your Timeline”
They’ll see the history of your phone’s physical location. But the good news is that no one can access this information unless they have the credentials to your Google account. So if you practice good password hygiene and don’t share your credentials with anyone, you don’t have to rack your brains wondering how to catch someone snooping in your Android phone.
3. Android Spy Apps
Unlike the Google tools mentioned above, spy apps don’t limit themselves to providing information about your phone’s location. Instead, these applications can access your messages and camera, view the call history, record phone calls, and monitor your social media activity. While parents can legally use spy apps to track their children’s smartphone activity, their use is mostly unauthorized and is considered a felony in the US that can lead to up to 1-year imprisonment.
However, if you have the consent of the phone’s owner to install a spy app, mSpy, Spybubble, eyeZy are the three most effective ones. Read this article to learn more about the best spy apps for Android that work silently in the background and don’t give out their presence on the device. Most apps have real-time GPS trackers, social media activity scanner, and a wide range of features. However, most features are paid, and the users should purchase a paid membership to use the app to the maximum.
4. Wireless Networks
Is my Android being spied on when I connect to a public Wi-Fi network? The short answer is “yes.” The information transferred through public Wi-Fi is unprotected, and anyone can easily access your personal info and passwords by using a few simple tools. Moreover, in search of “free Wi-Fi,” you can easily fall into the trap of thieves who intentionally make the network public so that they can grab the data of the victims transferred via the network.
However, a few simple tricks could protect you from data thieves.
- Turn off the automatic connection feature of your phone.
- Use a VPN to encrypt your data even when connected to a suspicious network.
- Use strong passwords and two-factor authentication.
Conclusion
To wrap up, cyber espionage is a crime but tracking someone’s phone activity with their knowledge is legal. According to CellTrackingApps.com, parents can install spy apps on their children’s phones to get access to their location, camera, call history, and messages. But if cybercriminals succeed in installing these apps unnoticed, they can receive the same data and use it for malicious purposes.
