What sort of things will I notice if my phone is hacked?

[Purplepeanut]

Hello,
Let me start by saying I know I sound crazy, please help me figure out what is going on. I'll start with pics. Pics sent to me and pics I take myself are just all kinds of wierd. If i zoom in to eyes, there are multiple sets of eyes forming one. I only noticed this after taking a selfie and my brown eyes were blue. I've noticed every face is different almost as if it is different people's faces or similar features collectively to form one. Ex: a selfie will look like me but not EXACTLY like me. Google activity is always coming up with things I've searched that I havent and websites I've been on that I havent. Random apps appear on my phone. Some I've never even knew existed. I also get text messages from people I dont know. On websites or apps the people in articles or whatever always look like people i know like my kids or friends but if blown up they dont any more. I think maybe its something like half of the face of people I know is somehow put on top of strangers faces? I know, crazy. I am embarrassed to even be posting this but I am at my wits end trying to figure this out. The last thing I can think of right now is, brace yourself, when sunlight or bright lights like an led hit my screen images of people and sometimes I notice it's like a video, cloud up my screen. Most of the time it looks like porn! I appreciate any thoughts (please be nice) and any advice on this. I have wasted so much time trying to figure this out and honestly it freaks me out. I know i havent thought of everything that happens so if anyone does have any answers for me I can add to this as it happens or I think of it. Thanks in advance!!

 

[lunatic59]

You didn't say what kind of phone you have, so let's start with that. If it's something with the phone, than a photo copied to another device or PC should not have the same issue. If the photos themselves are being altered, it might be some sort of filter you have on your camera app or something that automatically filters your pictures when you save them -- either from the camera or downloading them from a text message. If you could post an example it would help.

Google activity is often very misleading. You will see all activity from every device connected to your account, so if you have Chrome installed on a PC and someone else uses it, that will show up in your activity logs. Also, any app on your phone that establishes a connection to 'phone home' as it were will also show up. Yes, even apps that serve ads will show the adbot connection, so it might look like all this random stuff, but in truth, it's legit.

As for selfies, I'd make sure your camera isn't flipping the images. Most people's faces aren't perfectly symmetrical so when you see a mirror image it looks weird. We get used to seeing flipped images in mirrors, but no in stills. It's a visual phenomenon, but nothing to worry about.

Now, if you think there's some security problem with your account, i'd recommend you go to a PC, log into your account and first thing, look at the devices that have connected using your account. If there are any there you don't recognize, delete them. Then change your password and enable 2-step verification. This way if you account was compromised, they won't be able to get back in from no on.

 

[Dannydet]

I remember my first mushroom...
Seriously though, this sounds like a made up story.
Can you upload screen shots of your issues?
If in doubt, take the phone directly to your carrier

 

[Hadron]

Some of the things you mention could be the way the human mind works. How we picture ourselves & how we come out in photos are not necessarily the same (and as Luna notes, mirrors don't help!). And seeing resemblances to people you know which go away when you look closely is the sort of trick the human visual system plays very easily. You should always remember that what we "see" isn't reality, it's an interpretation of a set of nerve impulses from our retinas, and the pattern recognition can produce false results (how optical illusions work) or jump to an initial identification that is then revised as you look more closely.

Some of what you describe seems much more likely to be you than the phone. That thing with the familiar faces on web pages in particular would be almost unbelievably difficult to produce by manipulating images in real time as you browse the web, but quite an easy error for the human visual system to make. Now seeing that all of the time would be unusual, but people do vary and you may just be more prone to it. A surprisingly large number of people have a degree of face-blindness, and most of them aren't aware of it. For all I know (this isn't my field) stress or sleep deprivation could affect this. So some of the other things you describe might be tricks of perception: note "might", I'm not saying they are, just that if I were experiencing this it is a possibility I would consider.

The "multiple sets of eyes" thing sounds more objectively verifiable, and also would be easier to see how an error in the phone might produce it. As Danny says, if you could post a screenshot of that it would be easier to tell what to make of that one. I'd also try copying the photo to a computer and looking at it on there, to eliminate the possibility that the phone's display is the problem.

Texts from unknown people is something different, but need not have anything to do with hacking: spam or someone having given out the wrong number are also possibilities. Without knowing more about the texts it's hard to say.