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If you’re not careful, your smartphone can quickly turn into a spy nest, with malware monitoring your activities or stealing data. To prevent this from happening, you should take some precautions.
The very first instinct to have is to always update your mobile operating system and its applications regularly. This helps close already known security gaps. Never download attachments or documents from emails or questionable sites. Also, do not install applications other than those offered on the official Apple and Google Stores.
It is also advisable to use an antivirus on your smartphone, which can detect the presence of spyware programs if necessary, as well as a VPN, which will protect you from malicious sites. Finally, be careful to lock the screen of your smartphone, never part with it and never lend it to anyone. Obviously no one is safe, but these precautions will certainly save you from major problems.
Note that there are many warning signs indicating the presence of spyware on your smartphone. From a hardware perspective, this can result in overheating and unusual high battery consumption, random exits from sleep mode or reboots, strange noises during phone calls, etc. For the rest, worry if your contacts receive suspicious messages from you, if your data consumption is abnormal, if you receive unusual connection requests to your email accounts or your social networks or even if automatic correction works strangely.
If these alerts accumulate, it is really time to worry and reset your device, which will have the effect of deleting absolutely all data present on the device and restarting it in factory mode, i.e. -say as on the first day. To do this, simply go to Settings / System then Reset under Android or General / Reset iPhone under iOS.