These special phone and app features can help protect you from spyware | TechCrunch

Spyware attacks on journalists, human rights defenders, and political dissidents have become common. In early 2025, WhatsApp notified about 90 users in Europe, many of them journalists and civil society members, that they were targeted by Paragon Solutions. Later, Apple sent threat notifications to iOS users, and forensic analysis confirmed two journalists were compromised by Paragon Graphite spyware through a zero-click attack. Over the past 15 years, researchers have documented many successful compromises of critics and opponents by government hackers. These attacks use stealthy tools to install spyware on computers and especially smartphones, which contain daily-life data. Spyware can record calls, steal chats, access photos, activate camera and microphone, and track real-time location. Apple, Google, and Meta provide opt-in protections to counter targeted spyware, often limiting some features as a tradeoff.

"Spyware gives its operators virtually full access to the target's device and data. Government spies can record phone calls, steal chat messages, access photos, and switch on the device's camera and microphone to record ambient sound and record nearby conversations. Spyware also typically tracks a person's real-time location."

"In early 2025, WhatsApp notified roughly 90 users - many of them journalists and civil society members across Europe - that they had been targeted by Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions. Months later, Apple sent threat notifications to a new group of iOS users; forensic analysis confirmed two of them, both journalists, had been hit with Paragon's Graphite spyware using a zero-click attack, meaning they didn't even have to tap a link to be compromised."

"These attacks rely on expensive, sophisticated, and stealthy tools that allow their operators to hack into and install spyware on computers, but especially smartphones, which hold virtually all of the data about a person's daily life. Spyware gives its operators virtually full access to the target's device and data."

"In response to these attacks, tech giants now provide their users with better defenses. In particular, Apple, Google, and Meta offer opt-in features specifically designed to counter targeted spyware attacks. Generally speaking, these features add extra protection, sometimes by turning off or limiting some regular features. It's a tradeoff, but having used these myself for a long time, I have never found them to be too onerous or annoying to use."

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