The Delhi High Court recently granted bail to former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey in a money laundering case related to alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping of National Stock Exchange (NSE) employees, saying he is prima facie “not guilty” of acquiring or retaining the “proceeds of crime”.
However, the court observed that “tapping phone lines or recording calls without consent is a breach of privacy”. According to reports, the court said the right to privacy as enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution “demands that phone calls are not recorded.”
But how does one know if their phone call is being tapped? News18 explains:
Strange Click Sounds or Interference in the Call
In an analog phone, there was a telltale sign of a call being possibly tapped. If you hear an unusual clicking sound or static noises during a call, it’s likely that someone is listening in. It’s not uncommon to hear these noises as a result of connection issues, but if it started happening recently, it’s a sign of phone tapping.
Some reports also describe these sounds as a ‘tapping’ or ‘clicking’. According to a report by Life Wire, you can check your phone for inaudible sounds by using a low-frequency sound-bandwidth sensor. A sound-bandwidth sensor is a noise detector app from another phone that can be used to measure the volume of sound on a potentially tapped device. If it detects sounds more than once in one minute, your phone may have been tapped.
The same sound can also occur in an digital phone or smart phone while being tapped, but there are other signs in digital phones that can indicate phone tapping:
Bad Battery Life (For No Reason)
If your phone’s battery life is suddenly much shorter than it used to be, or if the battery warms up when you use it, tapping software could be running silently in the background and consuming battery power.
Consider how frequently you’ve used your phone. Have you been making more phone calls or using apps than usual? If this is the case, your phone’s battery may be draining faster than usual. But if it’s not then there may be cause for suspicion. You can check your battery usage on your iPhone or android to ascertain some facts.
Problem Shutting Down
Someone may have gained unauthorised access to your smartphone if it has suddenly become less responsive or has difficulty shutting down. When you shut down your phone, check to see if the shutdown fails or if the backlight remains on after you’ve finished the process. If this is the case, the cause could be malicious software or a bug caused by a recent phone update, the report by Life Wire explains.
Suspicious Behavior
Someone may have hacked your phone with a spy app and is attempting to tap your calls if it begins to turn on or off on its own or begins to install apps on its own.
Strange Text Messages
Another major indicator that someone is attempting to tap your phone is if you receive strange SMS text messages from unknown senders with garbled letters and numbers.
Icons that Move
The network activity icons and other progress bars at the top of the screen should not be animated when you are not using your phone. Moving activity icons could indicate that someone is remotely using your phone or sending data in the background.
Personal information appears online
Another sign that your phone is being tapped is if private data from the phone has been leaked online. Notes, emails, pictures, or any other data stored on your phone should be kept private unless you intentionally make it public.
Phone bill is higher than usual
If your phone bill shows an unusually high spike in text or data usage, this is another indication that your phone has been hacked.
If you recently downloaded a new app that consumes a lot of data, this could be a legitimate explanation for the sudden increase in data usage. the fact that you are not here, and that you are not here, and that you are not here, and that you are not here.
However, spyware and other malicious apps can use your cellular data plan to conduct secretive transactions without your knowledge, so if you notice an unexpected spike in data activity on your phone bill and don’t have a good explanation, contact your carrier for assistance, the report states.
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