Text Spy: Is Someone Tracking Your Phone?

 Can someone spy on texts? Is it possible to spy on texts and other phone activities remotely? Is someone actually tracking my phone right now? If you ever find any reason to ask these questions, you better act on it fast. Technological advancements have paved the way for people to track a device or monitor various phone activities including text messages. Text spying, or phone monitoring in general, is not bad per se, but many people take advantage of this technology for their twisted purposes. 

The good news is, you can avoid falling victim to people who misuse phone monitoring technology to spy on your text messages and phone calls, your online browsing, and more. The first step in doing that is knowledge and awareness. Learn about and keep in mind the different signs that might point to your phone being tracked or monitored.

Why Would Someone Spy on Texts?

Yes, it is certainly possible that someone is tracking your phone and spying on your text messages. But why would anyone do that? Well, there are several possible reasons - from the completely legitimate and logical to the downright illegal and malicious.

Let’s start with some legitimate reasons why someone would be tracking your phone. After all, text monitoring and phone monitoring are not illegal acts per se. The following reasons or purposes are mostly why text message tracking and phone monitoring were even developed in the first place.

• Child Monitoring Purposes

As the internet and smartphones have become more readily accessible, digital parenting has been added to the many responsibilities of parents. Parents have come to rely on parental control apps and monitoring software due to the following:

• Easy, unmonitored communications via text messages and chats

• Access to various social media platforms and websites

• Exposure to a wide range of online content 

• Dangers and threats perpetrated by cyberbullies and cybercriminals

Although child monitoring is certainly acceptable, like most things, there are limits and boundaries. Restrictions to the use of monitoring apps can be seen both from a legal standpoint as well as a mutual understanding and respect for privacy between the parents and the child.

• Business Purposes

Many companies or employers provide employees with digital devices. This is especially true if frequent traveling is part of the job description. Of course, employers must explicitly inform employees that the phones or other devices provided by the company are being monitored.

While some might frown on this practice, it’s logical when you stop to think about it. Besides, it’s not really text spying or phone spying in a negative sense since the company devices should, after all, be used for business-related transactions only. Monitoring texts and other activities can help ensure that no data and/or security breach takes place. In addition to that, this also helps to positively drive employee productivity. 

• Legal Purposes

Phone monitoring such as GPS tracking, phone call, and text monitoring, may also be used by law enforcement agencies in the course of an investigation. This must, however, have the proper legal documentation.

In general, you should inform an adult that their device is being monitored.  Monitoring your underaged child’s phone that you pay for is also technically legal. Whether you inform them or not depends on your discretion and family dynamics. Now, while some purposes are perfectly legitimate, some are the exact opposite. Like many great things made possible by technology, phone monitoring is often used by some people for their own personal gain and twisted purposes.

Many cyber criminals use the illegal installation of monitoring apps on their victim’s devices. They will then use it to acquire personal and sensitive information from the target device. They may use the data for blackmail or to drain someone’s savings. Some people might also misuse phone monitoring apps to control their partners.

How to Know if Someone Is Spying On You?

There are several ways on how to tell if someone is accessing your phone and going through your text messages. While some could actually physically access your phone and snoop on it, we’ll be focusing on access via spy software. Manysoftwa have become more sophisticated and may not show some of the following signs but it still wouldn’t hurt to learn about them.

• Fast-draining Battery

If your phone is relatively new and there have been no drastic changes in your phone use then there should be no cause for your battery to drain unusually fast. 

• Overheating Phone

Monitoring software and spy apps constantly run in the background to acquire data. This could cause your phone to be unusually hot all the time, even when not in use.

• Spike in Data Usage

Monitoring apps have to send the acquired data to their servers. This would require data which could explain the unusual spike on your data usage. Of course, you have to make sure that the app you just downloaded is actually causing the data usage spike.

• Rooted or Jailbroken Phone

If you discover that your phone has been rooted or jailbroken without your knowledge, chances are, malicious apps have been downloaded and installed on your phone. Some apps could help you determine whether your device has been rooted or jailbroken.

• Phone Shutdown and Latency Issues

If your device is taking too long to shut down, apps running on stealth mode such as spy apps may be causing this. The same is true if your device suddenly gets too slow or crashes without any obvious reason.

• Unusual Messages and Pop-up Notifications

Some spyware use text messages to send and receive data. Look out for unusual text messages and pop-up notifications. The messages are usually alpha-numeric which looks like gibberish.

• Strange Activities in Standby Mode

If your phone lights up or makes strange noises while on standby mode, this could indicate that spyware or other malware has infiltrated your system.

• Misbehaving Autocorrect

Some spy apps come in the form of keyloggers which could capture your messages and login details. The keylogger could interfere with the autocorrect function. This is another sign to watch out for.

• Unfamiliar Applications

Make it a habit to check the installed and running apps on your device. If you see any unfamiliar apps, you can search about them to help you determine whether it could be a spy app or something you just forgot you downloaded.

These signs are only the first steps in keeping yourself from falling victim to malicious phone tracking and monitoring. You can also observe some best practices such as keeping your operating system up-to-date and avoiding clicking on suspicious links. If you do find out that a monitoring software has infiltrated your system, you can resort to a number of ways to remove the said software. These methods include manually removing the spyware, updating your operating system, doing a factory reset, or using a spyware removal tool.