Hi,I don’t really know where to ask this and I’m in dire need of help. I tried the subreddit for privacy which directed me to this forum.
My roomie (27M) got into my phone without permission. I (22F) had blacked out from a night out and he used the opportunity to get into my phone as if he meant well. He scanned my fingertip to get access and he told me later that he did it out of concern to check whether I had pictures or the phone number of the person who could possibly had put something in my drink. I was very uncomfortable with the fact that my phone was snooped because I blacked out. It felt more like an opportunity for him to read and see everything on my phone and invade my privacy.
We are not roomies anymore and after things went ugly (he moved out) I noticed weird stuff on my phone; whenever I made a call it would lag and I could hear an echo in the background. I still do have suspicions on the fact that my phone is bugged and I’m worried. Given the sneaky, invasive and controlling personality of my roomie I am afraid that my phone is tapped and another horrendous possibility - I’m thinking specifically about my wifi being snooped.
Even though it may be inconvenient:
Do a factory reset on your phone and set everything up fresh - do not install from backups.
Create new passwords for your phone, Google/Apple account, WiFi and everything else really.
This is a good time to start using a password manager if you are not already doing so.
Factory reset first to get rid of any unwanted app on your device.
Then, before installing any apps back change your phone password, Apple/Google account and WiFi.
After that set up your apps again fresh and create strong new passwords for all of them one at a time.
While I think it is unlikely that the symptoms you noticed would be related to your phone being ‘tapped’ or otherwise monitored (generally visible or audible glitches as an indication that you are hacked is more of a thing in movies than it is in real life). But I know that that will not give you much peace of mind or eliminate your concern, and your roommate could have still done something shady even if the symptoms you perceived were unrelated.
My recommendation would be the same as @Valynor do a factory reset of your phone, Change the password/pin for your phone and your Google/Apple account + any other account you think they may have been able to access. This will give you more or less a ‘fresh start’, any malware that may have been on your device would not survive that. Then you can go about manually reinstalling the apps you use.
As to your home network, unless you are able to access the admin panel for your router from your phone, your roommate should not have been able to gain any additional access to your network just from having access to your phone. (But he was your roommate so I’d assume he already had some access to his and your home network, possibly including admin login credentials (which is different than your wifi password, but is often printed on the back of the router).
No harm in changing both your wifi password and your routers admin password. Changing shared passwords after a breakup is a good practice no matter what (I know this isn’t technically a breakup but the same still applies). You could factory reset your router as well, but that is a little advanced and might be daunting if you are not super tech-savvy (it can be super simple, or rather complex depending on the router), so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it unless you feel comfortabel with it.
Thank you for a very thoughtful and elaborative answer. I am not tech savvy, but I will definitely keep what you wrote in mind. After this horrible incident I wished that I had tapped more into privacy sooner. Better late than not at all.
Have you reported this to the police?
Not that I would want them snoop in my phone either. Although that could obviously help with a possible investigation.
Don’t have better first responses than already provided. But just wanted to say you are welcome to stay along here. You probably now understand why we take many precautions to avoid any impacts of situations like these. Hope you find the forum useful and if you have any questions just feel free to ask again.
I do suggest that (perhaps depending on the country you live) you report this to the police. Not so they start an investigation but just so they have their name on file so that on file in case something happens to you.
I understand that my situation isn’t exactly the most appropriate and the damage has been done. It is not an easy issue for me to delve into nor talk about. Thank you for your legitimate concern. I am happy I reached out to this forum.