15 Signs Someone Is TRACKING Your iPhone & How To Stop It

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- Is someone tracking your iPhone right now? If they are your privacy, your data, and most importantly your personal safety are at risk. - They could be recording your screen, spying on you through the camera or using Bluetooth devices that sound like something out of a "James Bond" movie. - From jealous lovers to overzealous companies, we'll talk about the real ways iPhones get tracked and had to shut that down for good. - First let's talk about people who may be tracking you using iPhone features that are designed to share your location. - The first one, Share My Location. - Open Settings, scroll down and tap Privacy and Security. Then tap Location Services, then tap Share My Location. - Make sure there isn't anyone here who doesn't need access to your location. - To stop sharing your location with someone tap on their name and then tap stop sharing my location. - Next up the Find My App, which has a feature that can notify other people when your location changes. - Let's close out of settings open Find My and tap on the me tab in the lower right hand corner of the screen then look for a notifications about you section. - If you don't see this section on your iPhone, don't worry about it. You're not sending your location to anyone. If you do see notifications about you, you can tap on the person's name to see more about what's being shared with them. - And we bet you didn't know this to prevent theft, your iPhone remains fineable through the Find My Network for up to 24 hours after it's powered off. - When you turn off, Find My you think you'd be safe, but there is a way to turn it off immediately if you need to. - [Host] When you go to turn off your iPhone. - [David] So I will press and hold the side button and the volume down button. - [Host] Tap on iPhone findable after power off underneath the power slider, okay? - [David] And then it says iPhone remains Findable after power off and you can choose temporarily turn off finding. - It's also possible somebody is tracking you through the map app using ETA sharing. Let's close out of fine my and open the Map app. Then swipe up and tap on the more button next to recents and then tap on the information button next to one of your favorites and here you'll see share ETA and you'll be a list of people who can see your ETA when you're going to one of your favorites. - You might not even know these features exist as part of researching this video. I learned a bunch. - I don't use Apple Maps because I think it sucks. I use Google Maps and it's also possible somebody is tracking you in that app. Let's close out Apple Maps, open Google Maps and tap on your account icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Then tap on location sharing and if you're sharing your location with people, they'll show up here. - Before we talk about the signs that someone is tracking you without your knowledge, give this video a thumbs up. It helps us out a lot. - One of the first big signs is increased data usage because they're collecting data on your iPhone and sending it somewhere else. To check the data usage on your iPhone let's close out a Google Maps, open up settings, then tap cellular and look at the cellular data usage during this current period. - The current period doesn't correspond to anything except for the last time you reset these statistics. So if you scroll all the way to the bottom of this menu, there is a reset statistics button if you want to you can reset the statistics and then track your data usage from there. - Another sign someone is tracking you is increased battery usage or there could be an app on your iPhone that's draining all of your battery life. To check, let's head back to the main page of settings, scroll down and tap battery and then take a look at your usage over the last 10 days, are there any unexpected spikes in your battery usage? - If there are or you see an app up here like Spy on my Spouse, yeah, then that's a red flag. - Yeah, you can scroll down and just take a look at which apps are using the most battery life. - If your iPhone is heating up even when you're not using it, that's another red flag. It's normal for your iPhone to heat up when you're playing a 3D game for instance. But if it's happening all the time, that means that there's some process running in the background and that process could be tracking you. - The next is screenshots on your phone that you didn't take it's possible somebody is recording your screen, taking those screenshots and sending them off somewhere else. To check, let's close out of settings, open photos and then scroll down and tap on the screenshots album and you'll see a list of all your screenshots. Look for anything out of the ordinary. - The other place to check is in the screen recordings folder people could be recording your screen too. - [Host] Let's tap back upper left hand corner of the screen, tap on screen recordings and look for anything out of the ordinary. - And if you see a bunch of screenshots of the clock or your home screen, just join the rest of us and know that you're accidentally taking them in your pocket. - A couple other signs, maybe your phone is just waking up and randomly making noise when you're not doing anything or it's turning off and back on on its own. - Both of which, and a lot of these can be signs of software issues, not necessarily that you're being tracked. - The next red flags that the camera or microphone are in use even when you're using apps that don't require the camera or microphone. Fortunately Apple built in a really cool way to see if they're being used right now. So as you can see in the upper right hand corner of my phone right now, I've got that nice orange dot 'cause we're doing the screen recording and the microphone is in use. If you see one of these dots, you can open control center by swiping down from the upper right hand corner of the screen and tapping on the microphone at the top of the screen. Right now it says the system is using my microphone. - We know why, but if you don't know why, then that could be a major red flag. - Another red flag is hearing weird noises on phone calls. That's a sign that your phone might be being tapped. - It happened in the "Crown" and it happens today too. The next red flag is if screen time and content privacy restrictions are enabled on your iPhone without your knowledge and if they are, that can inhibit your ability to change some of the settings we're gonna talk about later in this video. - [Host] Let's head back into the settings app, tap back to the main page of settings, then tap on screen time, tap content and privacy restrictions and look at the switch next to content and privacy restrictions. - This is great for kids, but if this is on without your consent, turn the switch off. - I'll tap the switch and turn it off and I have to enter my screen time passcode. This passcode might not be the same as the passcode of your iPhone. - If you don't know what it is and you don't know who set it up, huge red flag. And before we talk about the settings you need to change, there's one more red flag. Check the list of apps that are installed on your iPhone and look to see if there's anything nefarious. - Yeah, let's tap back to the main page of settings and then scroll down to your list of apps. Just take a look through here, make sure there's nothing in here you don't want, like spouse Spire 2.0. - 2.0. - Let's talk about some of the settings to check in change. The first is email forwarding. This is a feature that is offered by pretty much every email provider. How do you know your emails aren't being forwarded without your knowledge? - We can't walk you through every single email provider in this video, but we are gonna talk about the two most popular ones on an iPhone. So we'll start with Gmail and then we'll do iCloud. - We're gonna use a computer for this 'cause it's easier on a website than it is on your phone. - I'm on gmail.com. I'm gonna click the settings gear in the upper right hand corner of the screen and then click see all settings Then I'll tap forwarding and POP/MAP. And if you see the forward to copy of this email to anything is there that you don't expect, just choose disable forwarding here and then at the bottom choose save changes. Next up iCloud, I'll tap on mail and then in the upper left-hand corner of the screen I'll tap that setting skier and then tap preferences and then right here in the middle is the forwarding section. If you see forward my email too. And then an email address that you don't recognize, uncheck that box tap done in the upper right hand corner of the screen. - Next, let's talk about text message or iMessage forwarding. Somebody could be tracking you by having your iMessages and text messages sent to a device you weren't aware of. In the settings app, scroll down and tap on messages and scroll down and tap text message forwarding to make sure only the devices that are selected are ones that you want your messages being forwarded to. - And you have to be careful of regular text messages and MMS messages too because those often appear on a phone bill and they can be accessed through your carrier. - Next up is Reed Receipts, this lets people know when you've read their text message. To turn them off, tap back in the upper left hand corner of the screen, one below text message forwarding is send read receipts, turn that switch off. - And if you're enjoying this video, please subscribe to our channel. It helps us out a lot. - Just like with text, we wanna make sure our phone calls aren't showing up on other devices. Let's tap back to the main page of settings one above messages is phone, tap on that. Then tap calls on other devices and just look at this list of devices. Make sure your calls aren't forwarding anywhere you don't want them to be. - And while we're here in settings, we need to make sure that your calls aren't being forwarded to a number that you don't control. - Let's tap back to phone and let's look in this list for call forwarding. - That's why we've brought this phone in here in the center it's a different carrier, so different settings can show up in these menus. This one's on tangle open settings, and I'll scroll down to the phone app, tap on that, and then I have call forwarding here. I'll tap on that and I have a switch here that I could turn on. If it was on on your phone, then you could turn off that switch. But even if you don't see call forwarding, that doesn't mean that call forwarding isn't enabled with your cell phone carrier. Fortunately, there's an easy way to turn it off that works on AT&T and Verizon and T-Mobile and a slew of other carriers. - Let's close that of settings. Open the phone app, go to the keypad and dial *73, then press call. - Verizon says that even if you just hear a tone, which is what we've heard, don't worry about it. It still means that call forwarding has been disabled. - But don't be afraid to call your wireless carrier just to make really sure your calls aren't forwarding because some carriers have unique features. - Like the ability to forward individual phone numbers, two other phone numbers, not just every phone number, and that's different than the star seven three things. So you know the only way to really be sure is to call. - Next, let's talk about AirDrop. If everyone or contacts only are selected, AirDrop can be an effective tool to see who's around. To check your airdrop settings, open control center, swipe down from the upper right hand corner of the screen, press into this box in the upper left and then tap on the AirDrop icon. You can choose between receiving off contacts only or everyone for 10 minutes. - And with Iowa 16.2, Apple really shut down your ability to be tracked because everyone became everyone for 10 minutes. This doesn't mean you can't airdrop things to other devices. It means that other people can't airdrop things to you and can't see your phone on their phone when they go to AirDrop something. - Next, let's talk about keeping your history safe in Safari and Maps. You can clear all the browsing data on your iPhone in settings. Tap back to the main page of settings, then tap Safari, scroll down and tap clear history and website data. Then tap clear history and data to confirm. - The process for clearing your recent destinations and maps is a little bit different. - Yep, let's close out of settings. Open up the Maps app and then swipe up. Here you'll see your recent tab. You can tap on more and then swipe right to left to remove anything you don't want than just tap delete. You can do the same with favorite locations. Let's tap out of recents, tap the more button next to favorites and then swipe right to left on any favorites you no longer need. - The next way to stay safe online is to use a private browsing tab in Safari. - Let's close out of maps, open Safari and tap on the tabs button and lower right hand corner of the screen. Then tap on 10 tabs at the bottom and tap on private. Now you are in private browsing mode. - No history, no website data, no nothing that's gonna be saved after you close this tab. - Next, we need to talk about airTags and unfortunately they have been used as a stocking device. Apple has built in some safeguards now after some of the controversy, but there are some things you need to know. - First off, there's a popup that appears to let you know when an AirTag that doesn't belong to you is found near you. - To disable that unknown AirTag that might be tracking you. Tap instructions to disable when the popup appears on your iPhone. Next, you should go into the Find My App and see if there are any items that are being detected with you. So if I close out of Safari open Find My, and then tap on the items tab. Make sure there aren't any items here that you don't recognize. If there are, you can delete them by swiping right to left. and then tapping on the trashcan. - All these Apple security precautions are great, but they only work on iPhone. They don't work on Android smartphones. So Apple built an app called Tracker Detect that detects AirTags around you, but it's kind of a pain in the butt to have to use it. - But it does work. Next, let's talk about Apple ID settings. One of the first things you might wanna consider doing if you think you're being tracked is change your password. - And the easiest way to do it is on a computer. Let's go to Apple id.apple.com. I'll log in with John up phone and then go to password, enter your old password and then a couple of new ones that hopefully match and you'll be good to go. - Then check your iPhone and see which devices are connected to your Apple ID and make sure there aren't any that shouldn't be there. So we're gonna close out of fine my open settings scroll up and tap on your Apple ID at the top of the screen and here you'll see the devices connected to your Apple ID. - If you see one that doesn't belong to you, just tap on it and tap remove from account. - Let's talk about our family sharing settings. This includes a lot of stuff like shared calendars, photo albums and Find My. - But it's also a great way to track you without your knowledge. To check if you're in a family group, open up settings and then tap family at the top of the screen. If you don't see that you're not in a family group, you can see everybody in here who's in your family, but as long as you're an adult, you can also leave the family. Tap on your name and then tap stop using family sharing. But before you do know that as soon as you do this, other family members are gonna get a notification that says that you left. So if you're trying to fly under the radar, don't do this just yet. - As David said, that only works if you're in an adult role, but someone who wants to track you might add you as a child or a teen. - And they do that by lying about your birthdate when they create your Apple ID. If somebody created your Apple ID and you're at a child in here, major red flag. - Lying about your birthday on the internet. Next we're gonna talk about safety check. Let's get there in settings first, tap back to the main page of settings, scroll down and tap privacy and security and then scroll down and tap on safety check. You have two options. The first is emergency and reset. Immediately reset access for all people and apps and review your account security. - Only, good for emergencies. - And manage sharing and access. Customize which people and apps can access your information and review your account security. - If you feel like your safety's in danger, this is a good place to go and follow the instructions. - Let's talk about one of the number one most important privacy and security tips. And that is turning on two factor authentication. - Apple has gotten really good at this recently. It kind of makes you sign up for two factor before you can do a lot of things with your Apple ID. - To turn it on, let's go back to the main page of settings scroll up and tap on your Apple ID at the top of the screen. Then tap password and security and then look at two factor authentications. So right now I have it on and when you turn it on, you have I think it's two weeks to turn it off before it's just on forever. If it's not on on your iPhone, turn on that switch. And while we're here in this section of settings, let's talk about account recovery contacts. - Recovery contacts are people who can help you get back into your phone if you accidentally lock yourself out. But for that reason, you need to make sure that your recovery contacts are actually people you trust. - So I'll tap on account recovery and if you have any recovery contacts and hear you no longer trust, get rid of them. - And you can also get rid of your recovery keys if you have any of those as well. We talk a lot about passwords when we talk about security. If somebody has access to your passwords, they can get access to your accounts. Unfortunately, you can't change your passwords from the settings app, but you can see a list of the passwords that are saved on your iPhone. - Let's tap back to the main page of settings. Scroll down and tap on passwords. So face ID in here, and here's a list of all the passwords saved on my iPhone right now. - If you feel threatened, a good way to lock someone out from your account is to turn on two-step authentication for that account. And most companies now are supporting it because you can always say, "Oh, it's just being proactive about security when they get logged out on their end." - We talked a lot about the jealous lover side of things. What about the overzealous companies? One of the first places to look is the app privacy report. It's all taped back to the main page of settings. Scroll up and tap on privacy and security and then scroll down here to app privacy report and tap on that. - Now if you don't see anything in here, it means you might not have turned on at privacy report in the past. Turn it on now in a few days you'll have some data to come back and look at. - This app privacy report is kind of disappointing, but if you see a suspicious app or website in here, it could lead you in the right direction. Also, it just lets you see how ridiculous Facebook is with its app network activity. It's just off the charts. - One of the settings we talk about in our video about the iPhone settings to turn off now is called significant locations, which is a built-in tracker. - Let's tap back upper left hand corner of the screen, scroll up and tap on location services. Then scroll all the way down and tap on system services and then scroll down and tap on significant locations. Face ID to get in. We really recommend turning this switch off. When it's on it saves a list of all the places you visit most often, and while that information is sort of secure, if somebody gets into your iPhone, they all of a sudden have a list of all the places you visit most often. - On a map that shows exactly where you've been. - The next thing we're gonna talk about is Lockdown Mode and apples for this feature is pretty interesting. It's hardened your devices against mercenary spyware with Lockdown Mode. - It's the most badass yeah sentence I think Apple has ever written. - To check out Lockdown Mode, tap back upper left-hand corner of the screen, back to location services and back one more time to Privacy and Security. Scroll down at the very bottom we have Lockdown Mode. - This is something you'll only need to turn on if you're the victim of a highly sophisticated cyber attack, which Apple says only applies to a very select few people. Am I part of that group? I think not. - But if you do find yourself the target of a highly sophisticated cyber attack, come in here and turn on Lockdown Mode when it is on your iPhone lot function as it typically does apps, websites and features will be strictly limited for security and some experiences will be completely unavailable. - Oh-oh. - So what do we do if we think we're being tracked? - Well, the first step is to always be ready to take a screenshot or a screen recording because that can be used as evidence. - To take a screenshot if have an iPhone with face ID. It's the volume up button and the side button simultaneously, little flash on the screen like a camera shutter, that screenshot will appear. - We also wanna take this one step further and show you how to take screen recordings. - So let's step back to the main page of settings. The first thing you need to do is add screen recording to control center. So on the main page of settings, scroll up tap control center, and make sure that the screen recording control is underneath your included controls. If it's not, just come down to more controls, tap the green plus button and then swipe down the upper right hand corner of the screen. We've got our screen recording control. We can press and hold on that. Maybe you want to get the microphone in there too, and you can choose where it gets save too. You probably don't wanna upload your screen recordings to Facebook Photos app is your best bet and then just tap start recording. - Best iPhone screen recording tutorial ever just then. When you're being tracked a lot of the time there's an app running in the background of your iPhone that's tracking you. - We talk about how to enable developer mode in our video about clearing system data on your iPhone that's in a card above and in this section below the subscribe button. - So rather than walk you entirely through the process during this video, I'm just gonna show you where to look once it's already set up. I've already opened Xcode. I'm gonna tap the Xcode menu in the upper left hand corner of the screen, go to open developer tool and open instruments, which is a fun little utility. Then I'm gonna go to Activity Monitor, open that up, and then I'm gonna choose the device I want to debug, which is David's. I'm just gonna take a look at all the processes on his phone. So David, would you use your phone a little bit? - All right, - So we're taking a live look at all the things that are going on in the background of David's iPhone, and if you look at the CPU usage column and you also look at the memory usage column, you could be pretty sure that someone who's tracking you is using an app that's using a lot of CPU or a lot of memory. - Take a look through the process list, see if anything sketchy is standing out. - Likes Spouse Tracker app or Spy on my Husband 3000 or yeah, track my wife, where's she at? - Phone Tap pro. - Yep. Any of that stuff. There are gonna be a lot of things that you won't recognize unless you're a professional, but don't worry about those things. It's really just the Tracker apps. - We do want to emphasize this is almost certainly overkill and it's not worth going out and buying a Mac to try it out. - If you're pretty sure you're being tracked and you don't know how to stop it, a safe bet is to factory reset your device. - Usually we recommend restoring from an iCloud backup. In this case we don't because that backup could bring back the malicious app, causing the problem on your iPhone. To factory reset your iPhone, tap back to the main page of settings, tap general, scroll down and tap transfer or reset iPhone and then tap erase all content and settings. - A question we're asked a lot is, should I install antivirus software on my iPhone? - No. - You don't need it on your iPhone. The app store is very secure. - Also, the antivirus apps, they can sometimes get pretty expensive with the plans and all they'll do is just slow down your iPhone. - Yeah, they really want to take your fear of viruses left over from your Windows days and transpose it onto your iPhone totally different things. - You don't need antivirus software. Just like you don't need to JailBreak your iPhone. - JailBreaking your phone removes all the security features that keeps your data safe on your iPhone. So if you jailbreak it, yes, you might be able to play an Nintendo game, but yes, a hacker can steal all your information and you would have no idea. - Next up, check out our video about the number one iPhone privacy mistake you might be making right now.
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Channel: Payette Forward
Views: 4,000,308
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: signs someone is tracking iPhone, iPhone tracking, stop iPhone tracking, is my iPhone being tracked, iPhone tracker, iPhone tracking location, iPhone tracking notification, is my iPhone tracking me, AirTags, iPhone, apple, tracking, tracker, payette forward, is apple tracking my iphone, do i need antivirus on iphone, should i get antivirus on iphone, david and david
Id: DdsLZmUsAVA
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 22min 2sec (1322 seconds)
Published: Mon Dec 26 2022
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