How to tell if you are being followed or tracked

First, your safety

If you believe you are in immediate danger, call 999. If you think you are being followed right now, go to a busy public place, a police station, or a shop with staff, and call from there. Do not drive home. Do not confront the person.

The rest of this guide assumes a slower situation: a pattern that has been building over days or weeks, and time to think about it.

The signs people notice

Repeated unwanted contact, appearances, or unexplained knowledge of your movements can be concerning. Look at the context without treating ordinary device behaviour or a single coincidence as proof.

• Someone knows where you were, or who you were with, when you did not tell them.
• The same vehicle, or the same person, appears in more than one place that has no connection except you.
• A former partner turns up at places you go, and it happens more than coincidence allows.
• Your phone battery drains faster than it did, or the device runs warm when idle.
• Someone refers to the contents of a message or an email they should not have seen.
• A friend or family member is asked questions about your movements by someone you did not expect.

These signs do not establish that you are being monitored. Battery drain and heat have many ordinary causes, but threats or a concerning incident can justify seeking help even without a pattern or technical proof.

Checking your car

Tracking can involve a separate device, shared accounts, or built-in vehicle services. A visible check cannot rule it out. Only inspect areas you can reach safely; do not crawl under an unsupported vehicle or dismantle components.

If you find an unfamiliar device, photograph it in place and note the time if safe. Seek police advice about handling it and protecting your location. Removing or disabling a device may alert someone, but preserving evidence must not come before immediate safety. Police guidance covers tracking and online harassment.

Unwanted tracking may form part of stalking, harassment, coercive control, or another offence. The circumstances matter, including the pattern of behaviour and any authority involved. Report concerns without trying to classify the offence yourself.

Checking your phone

Monitoring may involve software, access to a shared account, or location-sharing settings. Unauthorised access can engage the Computer Misuse Act 1990; ownership of the handset alone does not decide whether access is authorised.

If it is safe to do so, review location sharing, app permissions, and signed-in devices. If a partner or former partner may be monitoring you, get safety advice from a different trusted device before making changes: removing access can be noticed.

Use a different trusted device to seek help if you suspect monitoring. A reset may remove useful evidence and may not address compromised accounts. Ask police or a competent specialist about preservation and recovery, while prioritising your safety; forensic recovery is not guaranteed.

If your phone shows an unknown-tracker alert, save the alert and follow the manufacturer’s safety instructions. Contact police where you believe it relates to stalking or harassment. An alert is a reason to check, not proof of who placed the device.

Keep a record if it is safe

You do not need to gather evidence before reporting stalking or harassment. If safe, record the date, time, place, what happened, and any witnesses. Keep notes and messages somewhere the person you suspect cannot access.

The guidance on our harassment page covers what to capture and in what form. Police and courts act on patterns, and the log is how you show one.

Reporting to the police

Call 999 in an emergency, or use 101 or your local police’s reporting service for non-emergency concerns. Describe the pattern and any threats, and share records you already have. Police can assess protective measures, including whether a Stalking Protection Order is appropriate; an order or investigation is not guaranteed. Police advice explains what to do now.

The National Stalking Helpline, run by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, gives free advice on what to do and how to deal with the police, and is worth calling before you report if you are unsure.

Where an investigator fits

Most of what we are asked to do in these situations is one of two things.

Where appropriate, we may help assess available information about who could be responsible, using open-source enquiry and other justified methods. We report supporting evidence, alternative explanations, and limits. Private investigation is not a prerequisite to police reporting.

The second is to check a vehicle or a property properly. A physical search for tracking and listening devices is specialist work and we will say at scoping whether it is warranted, and whether a straightforward look of the kind described above is enough.

What we will not do is put someone under surveillance because they are suspected of putting you under surveillance, unless there is a lawful purpose and the work is proportionate to it. The reasons are set out on our legal framework page.

This is general guidance within the scope identified above. It is not legal advice and does not take account of your circumstances. Before a legal, employment, or court-related decision, seek advice from a solicitor in the relevant jurisdiction. Harwick provides investigative services; legal advice is a separate professional service.

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