How to Find ‘Stalkerware’ on Your Devices – Guide
Whether you’re a curious boss or a paranoid partner, no one should snoop on your phone or laptop. But that’s exactly what can happen if stalkerware somehow gets installed on your devices. These software tools are designed to be hidden and difficult to detect, but you can find them if you know how. There are a wide variety of scenarios here, from friends playing pranks to partners being abusive. If you are in a relationship where you feel stuck and scared, you can get help from the National Domestic Violence Hotline, Coalition Against Stalkerware and many other places – please get in touch. Dealing with programs deployed on company devices by your employer is a little different than someone you know personally trying to spy on you. The company you work for may have what it considers valid reasons to control your productivity, especially if it provides the hardware and software you use every day. Regardless of whether this kind of monitoring is warranted, at the very least your bosses should be telling you they’re watching, rather than keeping it a secret from you. In addition, with company ownership phones and laptops, it is always safer to assume you are being monitored. This guide focuses on software designed to be hidden, but keep in mind that there are plenty of legitimate parental control apps and built-in tracking tools (like Apple’s Find My) that can be used by people in your family or by people who define up your devices. The difference is that it should be obvious whether these types of applications are running, but you should still be aware of them and how they can be used.
How to check your Phone
The good news for iPhone users is that it’s virtually impossible to install stalkerware on an iPhone: Apple’s locked-down approach to apps and app security isn’t always user-friendly, but it’s very effective in keeping you safe. iOS simply doesn’t allow apps to dig deep enough into the system software to secretly monitor what you’re doing on yours. phone. There is an exception to this if your iPhone is jailbroken (unlocked so all apps can be installed). Considering how difficult it is to do this these days, we’re assuming that’s not the case – someone else would need to be a tech expert and borrow their phone for a long period of time to jailbreak. The easiest way to check is to look for apps called Cydia and SBSettings in home screen. If you have an unlocked iPhone, a full factory reset should fix it (and clear everything else, so make sure your important items are backed up up somewhere). This is best done through a connected Mac or Windows computer, and Apple has a complete guide to the process you can work here. Placing sneaky surveillance apps on Android devices is a little easier, although officially speaking they’re not allowed: Google will remove apps from the Play Store if it finds evidence of stalkerware behavior. Applications leak over the network, but someone will need to access yours. phone (or must have defined up your phone initially) to install one. This is actually one of the most telling warning signs to watch out for: if you define up your own android phone and no one else has had it for more than a few seconds, it should be stalkerware free. if your phone has been compromised, you may notice that it gets hot or the battery drains quickly while you’re not using it. You may also see unexpected notifications or longer than expected shutdown or startup times. It’s not an exact science – stalking apps are designed to be hard to detect, but any kind of unusual phone the behavior can be revealing. Monitoring apps often hide their app icons, but they may show up from the main app list, albeit with an innocuous alias: In Android Settings, tap Apps & notifications, then tap See all apps to check. Stalkerware can also be hidden in the real settings menu on Android (often in security-related sections) – look for menu items that don’t look right, or that you didn’t notice before, or that don’t match the official documentation. For added peace of mind, you can count on the help of a third-party tool: Incognito, Certo and Kaspersky Antivirus are three phone- Scanning apps that come highly recommended by your users, and they should tell you if you have something to worry about. It’s encouraging to note that the problem of covert surveillance apps is now more well known than ever, and both Google and Apple have a very murky view of any app that tries something like this.
How to check your computer
Most of the same stalkerware detection principles for Android and iOS also apply to Windows and macOS. Someone else needs access to your computer to get started, or to trick you install something yourself – which is not difficult for an IT manager who is providing a job for you laptop, but a little more complicated for someone in your house. As always, keep your laptop or well-protected desktop with your own user account and password, and pay attention to your physical security, such as who has access and when. Both Microsoft and Apple are well aware of the stalkerware problem, and Windows and macOS will detect and block some hidden tools without any extra help. As with any other type of malware, stalkerware can usually be detected by a third-party security package: We don’t have room for a complete one guide here, but companies like Norton, Bitdefender and Malwarebytes have options for Windows and Mac. If you want to do your own research, open up Task Manager on Windows (search the taskbar search box) or Activity Monitor on macOS (search Spotlight via Cmd + Space) to see everything running on your computer. Keep in mind that spyware usually doesn’t relate to its real name and may very well try to impersonate a system application or use a short name that you probably won’t notice. Check all the guides that come up in the screen dialog. If you see something you don’t recognize or something that doesn’t match up for programs that you know you’ve installed, or that just seem suspicious in their behavior (perhaps excessive disk usage), a quick web search for the application or process name is usually enough to reveal what you’re dealing with. You should also check for applications and processes that are starting up at the same time as your operating system, as most surveillance tools will need to do this. On Windows, you will find this software list in the Startup menu tab of the Task Manager; on macOS, open System Preferences and select Users & Groups and Login Items. Again, run a web search for any app you’re not sure about. There are some extra permissions that stalkerware applications probably need on macOS: In System Preferences, go to Security and Privacy and then Privacy. Check the Inbound Monitoring and Full Disk Access entries as spy software often needs these permissions. Windows doesn’t have exactly the same setup, but you can see what permissions apps have (including location, camera access, and so on) by choosing Privacy from the Settings menu and scrolling down to App Permissions. As we said, if your employer is controlling your workday, the tools must be visible and working with your knowledge. But if you’re really worried, a full system reboot for Windows or macOS should clear most of the hidden monitoring tools, if you suspect any have taken root (be sure to go back up your files first).
How to check your accounts
For someone who wants to invade someone’s privacy, it’s often easier to just get access to their online accounts than to try to get access to their devices. With almost everything accessible on the web, from social media to email, it’s much more effective.
Final note
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