Worried that someone’s watching you? Here’s how to spot and remove spyware on your Android phone—and keep your personal information safe.

Once granted this permission, the spyware app uses this overlay access to forcibly display a password prompt whenever the user tries to uninstall or deactivate the app through Android’s settings.

Spyware and malicious apps are just as much a problem on Android as they typically are on PC, but there are plenty of safeguards in place to protect your phone.

This simple guide explains how to identify and remove common spyware apps from your Android phone.

We test three Android spyware apps to determine if they do what they claim.