Technology advances put EVERY Australian mobile phone, and your privacy, under threat - What you need to know to protect yourself

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An Australian spyware expert has issued an urgent warning that technology advances mean every mobile phone - and their owners' privacy - is under threat.

Tristan Wilson, who is so security conscious he checks for hidden cameras and listening devices when he stays in a hotel, said Australians need to become more aware of threats to digital safety, especially on their phones.

Mr Wilson, chief operating officer of the Protective Group, told Kyle and Jackie O on KIIS FM that in the past, a person needed physical access to install spyware on a mobile phone.

'But now you only need the victim's Apple ID credentials or Google Gmail log-in credentials to actually impact the device,' he said.

'Gone are the days where you need physical access to the device. It can all be done now through the cloud environment.'

An Australian spyware expert has issued an urgent warning that technology advances mean every mobile phone - and their owners' privacy - is under threat. A woman looking with concern at her phone is pictured

Mr Wilson said his company gets 'a lot of calls' from concerned people renting Airbnbs and serviced apartments where they may be there for a couple of months.

'Often we find little hidden cameras that are generally left in air vents or the air conditioning unit. They can be quite small, really the size of a pinhole camera,' he said.

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'We even come across those sort of 3M hooks that you find behind bathroom doors where you put a towel on, with a little pinhole camera as well.'

He said spying technology can now easily be hidden in very normal household items, such as power banks used to charge phones with, which can have hidden cameras and listening devices in them.

'Quite often we find USB charging ports that have a little micro sim cards in them that are transmitting back to a person that's obviously wanting to spy on their spouse or partner.

'So, pretty devastating stuff, power boards these days are (often) Wi-Fi enabled.'

While such secret surveillance is illegal, Mr Wilson said much of it is being sold as  parental control software.

'So they don't really come out and say, it's spyware (or) "we're spying on your partner, we can see their every movement and location".

'The work around is keeping an eye on your kids.'

Mr Wilson said a lot of online retailers often call such devices 'nanny cams, probably to evade the fact that they are actually spy cameras and hidden cameras'.

A small camera hidden in a household plant is pictured. Such cameras are often also hidden in air vents and air conditioning units

Air vents and air conditioning units are the most common places used to hide spy cameras.

'They're quite inconspicuous and these days they don't even have the little led lights on them a lot of the time,' he said.

As the technology used for spying has improved, so has the technology used to find spying hardware.

'Modern phones have really good cameras so you can get some pretty good apps for your phone that can search the room for any camera lenses,' Mr Wilson said.

He said 'phones aren't great when it comes to finding GPS trackers and other wi-fi enabled type devices', but there are apps available which can held find spyware.

Even televisions can be used to spy on people, the expert said, with smart TVs integrated with online accounts that can be viewed on mobile phones to see what a person has been watching.

'So if anybody does have access to some of those accounts, there is always the possibility that those cameras can be opened remotely and that internet history accessed as well,' he said

His company always reminds people to regularly check the devices that are logged into their accounts.

One of the problems they regularly come across is when people stay in an Airbnb or hotel room and log into their YouTube premium account on the TV to watch videos.

But they often forget to log out and the next person who stays in the room has got free access to previous person's account.

Mr Wilson said there are warning signs to watch out for which indicate your phone has spyware on it, such as extra data being used, the battery draining or the phone heating up despite not being in someone's hand or in the sun.

'We've had clients before where their batteries actually got up to 85 degrees and their screens started to warp and the plastic started to melt,' he said.

'It's important for the user to follow their gut feeling as well because with this sort of software, you can open the camera remotely, you can open the microphone remotely, and it's as cheap as $15 or $20 a month.'

How would you know if someone is tracking you through your mobile phone?

To counter the threats to devices, he recommended using antivirus software, but cautioned that 'They're not going to give you full 100 per cent protection.

'So it's always still worth changing your passwords regularly  (and) also checking the password managers' that come with Apple and Google devices.

'With spyware, it does need to save its password and user name somewhere on the device and it tends to save it in those password managers. So it's always good just to check those,' he said.

Mr Wilson also warned about hackers and scammers using USB charging ports at airports and hotels to transmit and send malicious code to victims' phone, which can then be used to access details such as bank account log ins. 

'Phone safety and security is really important ... to stop everyday scammers getting into your phone and stealing your identity, extortion (and) blackmail ...

'If we keep our phone safe, it'll also keep some of those other unwanted parties out of our devices,' he said.