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Help Is my phone being Hacked/Spyed on?

Z

ZeldaDevotee

Lurker
I recently noticed a red light in my front camera (I have a Samsung S5 Mini G800f) when I'm not actually using the front camera & was making a phone call.I did not see when the light appeared & when it went,I just noticed it while talking on the phone on speaker.I have never seen this light before.I am wondering if maybe the camera is being hacked into & I am being spyed on somehow.So I'd like to please find out what does a red glow in the front camera mean? Does it mean it is being used? I was just feeling very worried as these days with smartphones & so many apps it can be a lot more dangerous.

I'm really scared & worried about this so I'd really appreciate any answers/advice.

Thanks.
 
Your camera won't trigger such a light.

You may have an LED showing a notification.

If it's a deeper, dim red, it's more likely your proximity sensor (like the light on some TV remotes).

The proximity sensor may be used during a call to decide if the phone is held closely, and will turn off the screen in such a case.

Does this match what you're seeing?
 
EarlyMon said:
Your camera won't trigger such a light.

You may have an LED showing a notification.

If it's a deeper, dim red, it's more likely your proximity sensor (like the light on some TV remotes).

The proximity sensor may be used during a call to decide if the phone is held closely, and will turn off the screen in such a case.

Does this match what you're seeing?
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your reply. Yes the light I saw in my front camera was a deep,dim red and not like a bright red light,you could hardly call it a light it but u could tell there definitely was something there cos it's not usually that colour. But what ur saying proximity sensor & all that- the led notification light is to the top left of the device on the S5 Mini,the proximity sensor things are to the right (the 2 dots) but my red light I saw is from the front camera itself (top right corner) and I've marked this in the image I've uploaded below.

Looking forward to hearing what u think but thanks a lot for taking the time to reply.
 

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ZeldaDevotee said:
Thank you very much for your reply. Yes the light I saw in my front camera was a deep,dim red and not like a bright red light,you could hardly call it a light it but u could tell there definitely was something there cos it's not usually that colour. But what ur saying proximity sensor & all that- the led notification light is to the top left of the device on the S5 Mini,the proximity sensor things are to the right (the 2 dots) but my red light I saw is from the front camera itself (top right corner) and I've marked this in the image I've uploaded below.

Looking forward to hearing what u think but thanks a lot for taking the time to reply.
Click to expand...

And what is really strange is that I have never seen this before so doesn't happen everytime I make calls etc which I found very suspicious.
 
Check out "Elixir 2"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bartat.android.elixir

Try the sensor tests, see if any trigger it.

I did read and hear you, not dismissing you - just suggesting that you cover those bases first.

If still in doubt, a factory data reset will restore your phone to a pristine condition, but will lose your apps and data.

You could see if it goes away in safe mode - if so, then you have a bad app, and want to factory data reset.

http://www.basictechtricks.com/2014/05/safe-mode-in-samsung-galaxy-s5.html

See if that works for yours.
 
EarlyMon said:
Check out "Elixir 2"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bartat.android.elixir

Try the sensor tests, see if any trigger it.

I did read and hear you, not dismissing you - just suggesting that you cover those bases first.

If still in doubt, a factory data reset will restore your phone to a pristine condition, but will lose your apps and data.

You could see if it goes away in safe mode - if so, then you have a bad app, and want to factory data reset.

http://www.basictechtricks.com/2014/05/safe-mode-in-samsung-galaxy-s5.html

See if that works for yours.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for your help EarlyMon. I will try that. So overall u think it's not possible for my front camera to get hacked like that? After all how can strangers practically do that they don't have my number or nothing. Anyway thanks for ur support really kind of you.
 
ZeldaDevotee said:
Thanks a lot for your help EarlyMon. I will try that. So overall u think it's not possible for my front camera to get hacked like that? After all how can strangers practically do that they don't have my number or nothing. Anyway thanks for ur support really kind of you.
Click to expand...
No worries, we're all in this together. :)

I wouldn't suspect some number based hacking.

I'd first suspect an unknown hardware mode, trivial.

Next would be a rogue app - a bad download or bad install, a nuisance.

Next would be some sort of malware.

Finally, a hardware fault.

Accessing hardware functions just with a phone number - nearly impossible.
 
EarlyMon said:
Check out "Elixir 2"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bartat.android.elixir

Try the sensor tests, see if any trigger it.

I did read and hear you, not dismissing you - just suggesting that you cover those bases first.

If still in doubt, a factory data reset will restore your phone to a pristine condition, but will lose your apps and data.

You could see if it goes away in safe mode - if so, then you have a bad app, and want to factory data reset.

http://www.basictechtricks.com/2014/05/safe-mode-in-samsung-galaxy-s5.html

See if that works for yours.
Click to expand...

See here is what the Exiler 2 App showed in the sensors.Can't make head or tail of it though,hope you can.Dunno how it shows if my camera was hacked. Interesting tho,its a very good app.
 

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Are you sure that's the camera you're looking at?
i know prox sensors glow red but I've never seen a camera glow...
EDIT isn't that the notification led?
 
funkylogik said:
Are you sure that's the camera you're looking at?
i know prox sensors glow red but I've never seen a camera glow...
EDIT isn't that the notification led?
Click to expand...
Notification led is on the left, proximity and light sensors are the two to right of the earpiece, that one on the far right - front facing camera.

I've never heard of a BSI sensor glowing like that but there's a first time for everything.
 
Ahh back illuminated sensor.... You could just have said that :p

Yeah in my experience it's always been the prox sensor that glows dimly (visible while in a dark room) while the sensor is waiting for some input
 
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