A tech expert has revealed what you should do if you suspect someone is spying on your iPhone.
Snooping doesn’t necessarily always mean a distant hacker has gotten into your phone — it could be someone closer to home in whom you’ve misplaced trust.
This is why you should keep passwords and passcodes private.
While your first thought might be to change your iPhone’s passcode, it’s probably better to reboot before, as ZDNet explains.
Reboot iPhone
The very first thing you should do is reboot your iPhone fully, as this should flush out any hacks that have been loaded onto it.
You can do this by holding the side button and either volume button down, until the power slider appears.
Slide it to the right and allow the phone to shut down.
Once it’s gone black, switch it back on by holding down the top or side button until the Apple logo appears.
Change iPhone passcode
Now you should probably change your passcode.
You can do this by going to Settings, followed by Face ID & Passcode.
Enter your current passcode, then scroll down to Change Passcode.
Set a new passcode — and don’t share it with anyone.
Check for Face IDs that aren’t yours
The person behind the spying may well have added their face to Face ID (or Touch ID if you’re using an older iPhone).
So the best thing to do is check.
If you have only set up one face to work on Face ID, this trick should give you an idea.
In Face ID & Passcode, look for Set Up an Alternative Appearance.
If you see it, you’re all fine, but if it’s not there — and you haven’t previously set a second one up yourself — then this could be how someone is getting into your phone.
Tap Reset Face ID to remove all stored Face IDs and set yours up again.
For those with a Touch ID iPhone, go to Touch ID & Passcode, select each fingerprint one by one and choose Delete Fingerprint to remove.
Install anti-spyware app
Anti-spyware apps may help to detect anything that doesn’t look right.
Certo AntiSpy isn’t strictly an app — it’s more of a tool you can run on your computer.
iVerify is a security toolkit app you might also want to consider.
Stop handing your phone to others
As hard as it may be, the best way to protect yourself from these threats going forward is to not hand your phone to anyone else.
If you’re added online security, don’t miss our pick of the best VPN services in 2022 and the best VPNs for Netflix.
This story originally appeared on the Sun and was reproduced here with permission.
