When someone peeks through your phone without permission

As humans, we have the tendency to be curious about things. But when it goes beyond the ‘normal’ curiosity, then it becomes a problem.  How would you react when it happens? LifeXtra finds out.

We all love privacy. This privacy goes beyond the desire of wanting to be alone. Most people extend that privacy to their smartphones and devices. How? By using passwords to lock them to avoid trespassing or snooping by unauthorized persons.

Privacy has been defined as someone’s right to keep their personal matters and relationship secret. Some personal matters may include our text messages, pictures, chats, documents and files, etc.

But then, you may have a friend or perhaps your spouse or partner who needs a particular thing from your phone but cannot get it if he/she asks you. They feel the best way to get it is by taking your device without you noticing and then peeking through it. The question now is “How would you react if you catch someone doing it without your permission”.

Abayomi Oluwasegun, from Osogbo, said “First of all, I won’t give you my phone if I know that I don’t want you to see my personal info and my phone is always on lock.”

“I really don’t get worked up when people snoop on my phone because I know how to clear my trails without leaving a trace and if it happens that you see anything I don’t want you to see, you’re on your own,” he added.

Merry Henry, a mother of one, told LifeXtra “For one to be able to do that, I think I must have a good relationship with the person – a spouse, sibling or relative. A friend, no big deal but certainly not kids …nope I don’t want them to run my battery or data down or spoil my phone and change settings.”

Concurring with Henry, Ofonimeh Jamezany James, a Nollywood publicist and actor, added “Now it depends on the kind of person I am and the kind of information on my phone as well as the kind of pictures in there.”

“I personally do not see it as a big deal because I have nothing to hide, so I wouldn’t feel bad if someone snoops on my phone without my permission but I might not be too easy on the person because I wouldn’t want him or her to repeat such next time.”

“Also I just might have confidential information, pictures and contacts that I will want to keep very private,” he added.

Maryam Yusuf, a student, who said she has never really thought about it, added that “most likely because it had never crossed my mind to snoop on someone’s phone, if it happens to me I can’t say for sure what my reaction will be.”

Liz Lampkin in her article titled “Inspector Gadget: Why You Should Never, Ever Look Through Your Partner’s Phone” had this to say “Prowling through your mate’s phone is one of the worst things you can do. It can open up so many doors of disappointment and strife that you may not be prepared to deal with mentally or emotionally. There’s an old saying that goes, “Seek, and you shall find,” and it is very true.”

“If you go looking for trouble in your man’s phone, you just may find it. Before you decide to make that bold move, ask yourself if you can handle what you may find, what your next move will be, how you plan to confront your mate about what you saw if it was incriminating, and how you plan to explain to them why you were going through their phone in the first place,” she added.