Consumer-grade spyware apps that covertly and continually monitor your private messages, photos, phone calls, and real-time location are an ongoing problem for Android users.
This guide can help you identify and remove common surveillance apps from your Android phone, including TheTruthSpy, Cocospy and Spyic, among others.
Consumer-grade spyware apps are frequently sold under the guise of child monitoring or family-tracking software, but are referred to as “stalkerware” and “spouseware” for their ability to also track and monitor partners or spouses without their consent. These spyware apps are downloaded from outside of Google Play’s app store, planted on a phone without a person’s permission and often disappear from the home screen to avoid detection.
Stalkerware apps rely on abusing in-built Android features that are typically used by companies to remotely manage their employees’ work phones or use Android’s accessibility mode to snoop on someone’s device.
You may notice your phone acting unusually, running warmer or slower than usual, or using large amounts of network data, even when you are not actively using it.
Checking to see if your Android device is compromised can be done quickly and easily.
Before you start
It’s important to have a safety plan in place and trusted support if you need it. Keep in mind that removing the spyware from your phone may alert the person who planted it, which could create an unsafe situation. The Coalition Against Stalkerware offers advice and guidance for victims and survivors of stalkerware.
Note that this guide only helps you to identify and remove spyware apps, it does not delete the data that was already collected and uploaded to its servers. Also, some versions of Android may have slightly different menu options. As is standard with any advice, you follow these steps at your own risk.
Make sure Google Play Protect is switched on
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