Cell Phone Spying

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What Does Cell Phone Spying Mean?

Cell phone spying refers to a situation where an individual’s location, messages and conversations are monitored by a third party. Cell phone spying requires the spy to have unrestricted access to the cell phone for long enough to install spy software. There are several different degrees of cell phone spying, from a relatively simple program that tracks and sends location data to more powerful programs that give the spy complete access.

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Techopedia Explains Cell Phone Spying

As upsetting as cell phone spying sounds, it is worth remembering that a spy needs to physically gain access to the victim’s phone to set it up. Some possible signs that a cell phone has been compromised include:

  • The screen lights up at random times with no prompting
  • Background noise on calls
  • Random camera flashes
  • Difficulty powering down the phone

If you believe your phone is running spy software, you can take it your provider and have it wiped and restored to its factory settings.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.