Suspect your phone's being monitored? Proceed with caution

A few indications that your phone might be infected with stalkerware include excessive data usage and a noticeable drop in battery power. — Christin Klose/dpa

Abusive, controlling behaviour by a partner can affect all parts of a victim's life – including their smartphone.

With stalkerware, an abusive partner or stalker has access to everything that happens on the victim's laptop or mobile phone – they're even able to remotely control what happens on the device, according to German online safety initiative DsiN.