{"id":138917,"date":"2019-05-16T15:41:25","date_gmt":"2019-05-16T15:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=138917"},"modified":"2025-07-01T21:56:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T04:56:54","slug":"spyware-phone-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/spyware-phone-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"How to tell if your WhatsApp has spyware"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WhatsApp\"<\/p>\n

After WhatsApp’s recent security breach <\/a>which led to personal data being compromised, users have been trying to figure out whether or not they were affected.<\/p>\n

The first thing you can do is to update the app<\/strong><\/a>. However, the problem is that there is no concrete way of knowing whether you were affected by the breach.<\/p>\n

The good news is that there ways you might be able to tell if your device was compromised.<\/p>\n

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\r\n \"WhatsApp\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n WhatsApp Messenger<\/span>\r\n Download Now \u25ba<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n <\/path><\/path>8<\/text><\/svg>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n <\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

Look for signs of odd behavior<\/h2>\n

See if other programs are running slower than usual<\/strong>: Are YouTube videos not loading as quickly as they typically do? Is Instagram taking forever to refresh the page? Is that new app you’re downloading taking a small lifetime? These signs can mean that your phone is doing background tasks that are slowing down your phone.<\/p>\n

Check your battery usage<\/strong>: If your battery power is depleting faster than normal, it might mean your device is sending and receiving lots of data.<\/p>\n

Check to see if your phone is running hot:\u00a0<\/strong>If your phone is hot to the touch, it might mean that it is sending and receiving data due to the spyware.<\/p>\n

Just nip it in the bud with an antivirus app<\/h2>\n

If your phone has spyware or another virus, you typically can solve it with your standard antivirus app<\/strong> like Avira or Malwarebytes.<\/p>\n

\r\n
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\r\n
\r\n \"\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n Avira Free Antivirus<\/span>\r\n Download Avira \u25ba<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n <\/path><\/path>8<\/text><\/svg>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n <\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n
\r\n
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\r\n
\r\n \"Malwarebytes\"\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n Malwarebytes<\/span>\r\n Download now \u25ba<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n <\/path><\/path>8<\/text><\/svg>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n <\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

If you think you have spyware or a virus, antivirus apps can scan your phone and remove anything problematic. It’s a smart idea to check for a problem rather than waiting around to see if you have one.<\/p>\n

What are the chances that I was affected?<\/h2>\n

The main target of the spyware attack was a human rights lawyer in London<\/a>.\u00a0The alleged spyware is called Pegasus and it was made by the Isreali cyber-intelligence organization called NSO Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We’re going to go out on a limb and say that you are probably not affiliated with either the Israeli intelligence organization or the human rights lawyer in London who is suing them.<\/p>\n

That said, it is in your interest to use these best practices to regularly check for signs of spyware on your device<\/strong>. Although you probably weren’t compromised in this spyware attack, it doesn’t mean you won’t get caught up in a different one.<\/p>\n

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Read more on spying technology<\/p>\r\n

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Satellite Live app allows real-time spying worldwide \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n \r\n

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News This Chrome extension was spying on your private Facebook groups \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n

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Some of the best Android apps might be spying on you \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n \r\n

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More than 3,000 apps have been spying on children without parental consent \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How can I tell whether or not I was affected by the WhatsApp security breach?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9180,"featured_media":138920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":1},"categories":[2441],"tags":[2333,1624,2025,2026,1043],"usertag":[790],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-138917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionwhatsapp","tag-privacy","tag-spyware","tag-virus","tag-whatsapp","usertag-whatsapp"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326040,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138917\/revisions\/326040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138917"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=138917"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=138917"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=138917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}