Stalkerware: What to Do if You Are the Target

Stalkerware can turn phones into all-seeing surveillance tools.

There may be legitimate reasons for using tracking apps, such as monitoring children's phones or monitoring employees (with their consent). However, the distinction between these applications and what is often referred to as Stalkerware is blurred. Many apps market themselves as legitimate surveillance apps, but can offer staggering amounts of information from target phones and can function completely undetected. The reality is that these apps are abused by people spying on adults without their consent, according to law enforcement officials and domestic violence and legal experts.

You might at some point worry about having Stalkerware on your phone or laptop. It's not easy to decide what to do about it, domestic violence experts say, because your partner or ex could become more dangerous if you remove the software on your device. But there are some steps you can take to learn more about the software and find out if it is on your device.

What is Stalkerware?

Stalkerware refers to a large group of apps that someone else can install on your device to intercept text messages and phone calls, access your location, record your web browsing activity, and turn on your camera or microphone. The information collected by such an application is usually sent to a portal or a companion application accessible by the person who installed the Stalkerware.

How to Find and Remove Stalkerware?

Apps can be installed on all kinds of phones, although getting Stalkerware to work on iPhones is a bit more complex. The person who installs Stalkerware typically needs to gain physical access to the user's phone to install an app. A big exception to this is if the person installing Stalkerware has the target's iCloud credentials, which allows them to access the backups of the other person's phone.

How Do I Know if My Phone Has Tracking Software?

It can be difficult. Software often disguises itself, either displaying a harmless icon (like a battery monitor) or displaying no icon at all, says Kevin Roundy, technical director of the NortonLifeLock research group.

While researching Stalkerware applications, Roundy identified other categories of applications that often work in concert with intrusive software. One of these is an app hiding app, which can remove a Stalkerware app's icon from your screen.

Even if an app's icon is hidden on your phone, it should appear in your settings as part of the list of apps running on your device. The app probably doesn't yet have a tag that immediately identifies it as Stalkerware, Roundy says, so look for any app you don't recognize. You can search for any unusual looking apps online on another device to see if you can find more information about them.

An additional step is to use antivirus software on your Phone if you are using an Android device. (No anti-virus software is available for iPhones.) Antivirus software from Kaspersky, Malwarebytes, Protegent360, and NortonLifeLock scans for all software and warns users if they find known Stalkerware applications.

You can also take your device to a local police department. Resources and training vary from location to location, so there is no guarantee that someone can help you. Still, some departments have agents who specialize in domestic violence and have training in software scanning, and they may be able to help.

How to Remove, Destroy or Replace

You can decide that any risk is worth removing the app. In this case, you can take a few routes.

First, you can cut off the app's access to things like your camera and microphone and then remove them from your phone. This process can vary, and specific app removal guides exist online, sometimes even on the websites of app makers. Deletion is the least disruptive route you can take, but it can leave you with lingering questions about whether there is anything left on your phone that can spy on you.

If you are still not sure whether your device is secure, you can perform a factory reset. This restores your phone to the state you would find it when it was taken out of the box. You will be signed out of all your accounts and any additional apps installed on your phone after purchase will be gone. Before doing a factory reset, it is important to back up any photos or files that you have not yet saved elsewhere.

Finally, you can get a new device. This is hard advice to hear, especially if your finances are tight or your partner is in control of your spending. Still, that's what Allie says she decided to do.

She didn't know if she would be able to get rid of any software on her phone or computer, and she didn't think she could learn more than her ex-partner knew about the hack. She stopped using her devices and bought new ones.