Is there a way to tell if someone plugged in your phone on a computer?

[kevinmac1]

I gave my phone for someone to borrow for about 10 minutes, they then gave my phone back however, I am a little worried that they may have plugged in my phone on their PC and downloaded my personal data. Is there some sort of log or way I can see if this happened?

 

[Dannydet]

None that I'm aware of

 

[Deleted User]

Did the guy look like this? If so, you're in trouble

Seriously though, I don't know of a way to detect this either.

 

[svim]

It appears the consensus is no, if this person hooked up your phone to their own PC your options now are limited as far as determining exactly what if anything was done. It's one thing to keep your data private with day-to-day usage but generally, once you give up physical possession of your phone you've lost a lot of control over the matter. If you really suspect something did occur, change all the passwords to any online services you have set up on your phone (email account, FB, Dropbox, etc.), and from now on make sure you have some kind of lock screen/fingerprint set up, and refrain from giving you phone out. We are all putting a lot into our phones now, passing along your phone is like loaning your wallet to someone.

 

[kevinmac1]

It appears the consensus is no, if this person hooked up your phone to their own PC your options now are limited as far as determining exactly what if anything was done. It's one thing to keep your data private with day-to-day usage but generally, once you give up physical possession of your phone you've lost a lot of control over the matter. If you really suspect something did occur, change all the passwords to any online services you have set up on your phone (email account, FB, Dropbox, etc.), and from now on make sure you have some kind of lock screen/fingerprint set up, and refrain from giving you phone out. We are all putting a lot into our phones now, passing along your phone is like loaning your wallet to someone.

Actually I did have the app that I am worried about locked with Applock so that when someone touches the app, it requires a password. The problem is what happens when someone plugs in the phone on a PC. Can those same locked apps, be viewed on a PC. That is the golden question.

 

[svim]

Content that's encrypted is protected from any kind of casual viewing, the files themselves might be visible as files but the actual viewing/editing of them isn't possible. If those protected files were copied off to a PC, a determined black hat hacker 'might' be able to break the encryption key to gain full access to those files if they work at it long enough, but it's not a trivial task no matter who is doing it. But that's just a hypothetical matter -- if you had those files locked down, someone would a) really, really want to see what's in them and b) require the skills to decrypt them.

 

[JAy3001]

Here's an idea..

Surely you could tell if it's been plugged in by looking at your battery status. This details what's been using the battery since it was last charged.

And since plugging a phone into a pc acts as a charger this should reset the counter. Back pedal to when you last took it off charge and see if the times match up.

Of course this will not work if you have charged the phone since then.

 

[svim]

Here's an idea..

Surely you could tell if it's been plugged in by looking at your battery status. This details what's been using the battery since it was last charged.

And since plugging a phone into a pc acts as a charger this should reset the counter. Back pedal to when you last took it off charge and see if the times match up.

Of course this will not work if you have charged the phone since then.

Clever thought indeed, but isn't this only an indicator that the phone was connected to a charging source? It still won't reveal anything as far as what may or may not have been copied off the phone itself.

 

[JAy3001]

Indeed. But if you have borrowed a phone to make a call etc plugging it into a pc is not doing so is it, and would indicate a malicious intent or at least misuse.

The OP never stated it's borrowed intent and this was as close as I could think of seeing if the phone had indeed been plugged into a PC, after all who is going to borrow a phone for 10 minutes and be kind enough to charge the phone up at the same time?

 

[dan330]

if they plug it into a computer... there will be some charging.
if they just borrow to make a call.. they would NOT plug it in to anything.
if they did plug it in. i would be very odd

 

[svim]

Here's another thought on the matter. If say this person did plug your phone into a computer it might not be malicious as far as stealing something like banking info or your compromising your social media accounts, but rather to just 'borrow' your music library. Here in the U.S. numerous Geek Squad departments get regularly busted for stealing customer files -- these aren't pros looking to sell off sensitive data, they're just kids amassing un-DRM'd music (...and pics of naked women).

 

[andMego]

Here's an idea..
<br>
<br> Surely you could tell if it's been plugged in by looking at your battery status. This details what's been using the battery since it was last charged.
<br>
<br> And since plugging a phone into a pc acts as a charger this should reset the counter. Back pedal to when you last took it off charge and see if the times match up.
<br>
<br> Of course this will not work if you have charged the phone since then.

On my phone (Moto E4, Android 7.1.1) plugging in the phone doesn't reset the counter, and you can't tell that it was plugged in.

 

[Hadron]

It doesn't need to reset anything, you just need to see that it was charging for a couple of minutes.

 

[mikedt]

Something like this..where could have been connected to a computer and been charging, or it could have been briefly connected to a charger of course.

 

[Spec2nirvash]

Best advice is never let anyone you don't know or are not close with use your phone. Over the years I've had some random shady looking people ask me to use mine. You don't need to plug a phone into a PC to take data from it, and there is all kinds of potential trouble, even just from someone making a 10 second phone call right in front of you...

 

[dan330]

i personally dont mind helping a person in need.. let them use my phone to emergencies.

but i do see your point about it being potentially bad.

I wonder if there is an App.. that locks a phone down.. and only let a person only make 1 call out or accept incoming calls.

 

[mikedt]

i personally dont mind helping a person in need.. let them use my phone to emergencies.

but i do see your point about it being potentially bad.

I wonder if there is an App.. that locks a phone down.. and only let a person only make 1 call out or accept incoming calls.

I've lent my phones to other people to make calls on many occasions over the years. But I've never let them out of my site, and so there's no problem at all, and I can see they're NOT plugging my phone into their PCs.