MILLIONS of iPhone owners can check if apps are spying on them.
Cyber experts told The US Sun how to spot sinister espionage on your Apple device – and then put a quick end to it.
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Your iPhone is full of apps that sometimes need access to sensitive parts of your phone.
WhatsApp has to use your microphone for voice notes, while Instagram has access to your camera and photos.
But some rogue apps can take advantage of you by accessing private information for no good reason.
We spoke to consumer privacy champion Chris Hauk, who revealed how to spot these nefarious apps.
“iPhone users can take advantage of Apple’s App Privacy Report, which is built into iOS versions 15.2 and later,” said Hauk of Pixel Privacy.
“The App Privacy Report details how often apps access your data, including your location, camera, microphone, and more.”
First, you need to make sure you’re updated to at least iOS 15.2 by going to Settings > General > Software Update.
Then go to Settings > Privacy > App privacy and enable the report.
You can view this report at any time to see which apps are accessing your personal data – and how often.
You can also immediately see when an app is using your camera or microphone.
“iPhone users can see at a glance if an app has access to their iPhone’s camera or microphone,” Hauk revealed.
If you see a green dot in the top right corner of your iPhone screen, an app is using your iPhone’s camera.
“A yellow dot in the same area means an app has access to your microphone.”
Keep an eye out for these dots and investigate them if anything feels suspicious.
If you’re not happy with an app’s access to certain parts of your device, you can revoke permissions at any time.
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security and tap the part of your phone you want to investigate.
You can then enable or disable apps for specific permissions.
WHAT ABOUT ANDROID?
It is also possible to check the security of your app on Android phones.
“On an Android device, users can view the ‘Privacy’ section in the Settings app to see which apps are using the device’s camera or microphone,” explains Hauk.
“Android devices will also display an orange or green dot in the top-right corner of the screen when accessing the device’s camera or microphone.”