What to do if…
you think your phone camera or microphone was accessed and fear intimate content was captured

What to do now

1. Get to a safer pause first. If you feel in immediate danger, call 911 or get to a safer place and ask a trusted person to stay with you.

2. Use a safer device for sensitive communication. Use a trusted friend’s phone, a public computer you can safely access, or another device you control. Use that safer device for support, password changes, and reporting routes.

3. Contact specialist support before doing anything risky.

   • For sexual violence support, coercion, threats, or feeling unsafe, contact RAINN.
   • For intimate image abuse, sextortion, threats to share intimate content, or sexually explicit digital forgeries, contact the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative Image Abuse Helpline.
   • You do not need to prove the phone was accessed before asking for help.

4. If intimate content may be shared online, use the right prevention or removal route.

   • If the image or video was of you at 18 or older, StopNCII.org can help participating platforms detect matching intimate images or videos without uploading the content itself.
   • If the image or video was of you before age 18, NCMEC’s Take It Down is the age-appropriate route.
   • These tools can help on participating public or unencrypted platforms; they are not a guarantee that content will disappear from the whole internet.

5. Secure your most important accounts from the safer device.

   • Start with your main email account, because it is often used to reset other passwords.
   • Change the password and turn on 2-step verification or two-factor authentication.
   • Review recent security activity, recovery email, recovery phone, account forwarding rules, connected apps, and signed-in devices.
   • Sign out unknown sessions, then repeat this for cloud photos, messaging apps, social media, and accounts linked to your phone number.

6. Reduce further camera or mic access when it is safe to do so.

   • From a safer pause, review camera and microphone permissions and deny access for apps that do not need them.
   • Look for apps you do not recognise, especially apps with camera, microphone, location, accessibility, device-admin, or screen-recording access.
   • Update the phone operating system and apps.
   • If the suspected person may be monitoring your phone or could retaliate, get support before removing apps or changing visible settings.

7. Check for phone-number or account takeover signs.

   • If your phone suddenly loses service, you receive carrier alerts you did not request, or password reset codes arrive unexpectedly, contact your mobile carrier from another device.
   • Ask the carrier how to secure your account, add or update an account PIN, and check for SIM changes or number-porting requests.

8. Keep a small amount of information somewhere safer.

   • Save threats, usernames, links, emails, phone numbers, dates, and screenshots you already have to a secure account or device the suspected person cannot access.
   • Do not do intense evidence work right now. The priority is safety, support, and stopping further access.

9. Choose reporting only if and when you want to, unless there is immediate danger or a child is involved.

   • You can report cyber-enabled crime to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
   • If a crime is in progress, threats are escalating, or someone is in immediate danger, call 911 or local law enforcement.
   • Use official .gov reporting pages and avoid links sent by the person threatening you.