EXACTLY moienappleuser & applefreak77. You're correct. Your experience and everyone else’s here experiences here seem to match. Everyone keeps describing the same activity but nothing’s being done by Apple? Personally I’ve experienced this at least 2 or 3 years on at least 3 different models. And, actually, I have an iPhone 6. This post WHILE LONG, I think will shock you.
First of all, this is not just a “FB” thing (there’s a lot of entries here because FB is just one of the most common apps/sites). I don’t even have a FB account. It’s global. Almost every other user here DESCRIBES in great detail ALL the ways this malware/spyware is behaving. My post may be a little shocking, but it’s intended to help others and Apple too (and hopefully I’ll benefit too, in the end, by having a more secure phone that doesn’t use itself more than I use it lol). Here goes….
This “phantom” swiping, tapping, texting, dialing, browsing & changing of settings more was happening off & on for maybe a year or two (?)... in retrospect I think even when I had my 4 & 5S. I tried to ignore it as best I could but it’s just gotten worse and worse. So, for the past 6 months or so, I've had the SAME PROBLEM EVERYONE’S EXPERIENCING here on my iPhone 6. Everyone’s just describing DIFFERENT MANIFESTIONS (symptoms) of the SAME DISEASE. The disease is malware / spyware, imo, thru some security flaw in the iPhone. I’ve experiences all these symptoms off & on for the past few years. However, the problem continued and got seemingly worse with time (or started wearing on me lol). So I called Apple (a kick-*** company) and they REPLACED my phone. First let me say: I'm a HUGE fan of Apple, Steve Jobs, and the legacy of high standards that continues. HOWEVER, this is a huge problem that REMAINS UNADDRESSED (unfixed). I WOULD share this stuff on iphone feedback page \ but they have a serious char limit, that this longer message would never make the cut. So here goes a post that's my actual experience. So, I had ALL those same problems that EVERYONE is describing here.
So, I had the problem AT LEAST as far back as my 5S, the again on my iPhone 6. So I called Apple and they sent me a BRAND NEW (replacement warranty) iPhone 6 (same model) … BUT GUESS WHAT?? THE EXACT same behavior started again!!! I kid you not. Very frustrating (the same feeling everyone is trying to convey in their posts here). When I called Apple Support (-1800-MYAPPLE), and spoke with the rep (who was a nice guy), he said (upon asking) that he had indeed seen it before several times, but as I tried to describe it, he sort of kept seeming to talk over me pushing the idea that it might be something between the screen and the circuitry / sensors, aka HARDWARE, specifically, what I found other sides refer to as "the digitizer" (just behind the touchscreen that converts your touch to signals). HOWEVER, from what I'm about to describe next, I STRONGLY DISAGREE. The problem is NOT hardware. And I think you’ll agree, as you READ ON to the end of my post, that it's obviously a SOFTWARE /SPYWARE ..or worse, cyberware or at MINIMUM a security flaw that’s being exploited. Read on if you dare. Now, I don't know if it's one of the "haters/spies" (like korea, china, russia or fbi lol), OR if it's just some jealous gf who intentionally planted something on my phone, but here's MY experiences (similar to most people here ....only with a STRANGE and eery twist! Read on!! The BASIC behavior of this malware / spyware (hey! that's how it acts!! let's be honest and call a spade a spade) is this: 1. I put the phone down (flat or leaning up against something) and it STARTS SWIPING and TAPPING keys and even dialing and going into folders, and AS IF "studying" (spying), and it looks at very sensitive items. It almost taunts you, but I couldn't actually prove it. SO YOU KNOW WHAT? Today I tried many experiments to see what the heck is going on! Actually, for a LONG time, I've felt deep-down that the problem is software, because like moienappleuser stated "junk character and make-sense statements". So...that's what made me start experimenting (in my own stupid way): First, I thought, because of the highly unusual PATTERN of "randomness" (the pattern is that it goes into things and almost like "investigating" or "checking things out"... like simulating human behavior, like too "inquisitive" to be just random and too ANNOYING in its patterns), so I thought definitely NOT hardware! So, figuring SOFTWARE, I started, ONE BY ONE, closing various apps that were open (common ones I use), and all throughout the day (whether it makes sense or not), I'd go into Safari and clear cache and history)---for almost a year now like 20 times a day)...only cuz I don't know better. Of course, MANY times every day I power off my phone and relogin, I logged out of my "less necessary" apps and/or changed passwords and even (me this time) started deleting unnecessary apps. ETC. Anyway, so I kept trying to keep "just the minimum" apps I needed open...but it kept happening, so today, I closed even the last one.... but the problem continued.... and I was stumped! So I was trying to "narrow" down which app might be doing it (I have maybe the typical or around 100 apps in total (just a guess)), and honestly, i couldn't do a "proper" test, where I delete everything and reinstall 1-by-1. I need my apps to survive, for business, etc. OK, NOW CHECK THIS OUT. Today the activity on my phone when I set it down was "crazier" than usual... i mean was so aggressive and out of control, going into apps, dialing, texting etc that EVEN I couldn't IGNORE it. It was like a jealous girlfriend. You ignored her and she got crazier. So, the more I ignored it, the more "crazy" it got (i can't explain it all, but I'll share just THREE things just today that happened): 1. When it wasn't "getting my attention" (terror, lol), it THEN TURNED ON THE FLASHLIGHT (by swiping up and touching the flashlight to drain my battery VERY fast...you can ALWAYS "see" what's happening until ur phone goes auto lock I guess (?)--haven't tested or wouldn't know how to. 2. I could also see it TRYING to go into apps where you have to enter a 4 digit passcode! It tried OVER & OVER & OVER...until I got LOCKED OUT of the app myself!! (delay time)...before it started again! It wasn't like (yeah, I read a little like we all do) "brute force" meaning it didn't look like it was going sequentially or whatever, but it was "persistent". So, lest you think I'm crazy, here's a 3rd and LAST one I'll share with you cuz I'm out of time: 3) during one of it's "mock" or "random" or "junk" characters (true most of the time). READY? Ok, ... WHILE it was keying in RANDOM junk into a random text, I "randomly ADDED" (I inserted the cursor AS it was typing): "i love u" BUT I cleverly added (for my own testing) a HEART EMOJI in place of the word "love", so there were 3 chars: i(heart)u. THEN the spyware/cyberware/whatever continued its "RANDOM" text entries...but I watched closely studying (intently for patterns lol)....I say "lol" because I was shocked when about 15 seconds later (guestimate), it "WROTE BACK" (within the same string of text still and after lots more normal text characters)... a message that included a LOT of emoji hearts (but a different one!)... so whoever (not whatever...and it's NOT hardware!! DUH!!) is doing this is MALICIOUS. I wish I had recorded the screen so I could repeat it for you exactly, but it was something like 10-15 emoji (I think 2 or 3 different emoji hearts all strung together)....like it got "crazy" that it was being "challenged". So, THIS IS REALLY WHAT WE'RE DEALING WITH. I share it here because i've tried everything else (as you can see) AND I want this to HELP and call ATTENTION to Apple to spend some serious resources to fix this issue. As you can see, it's NOT hardware, it's something malicious and it's (seemingly?) LIVE.
THE ONLY WAY to "STOP" it (temporarily) is to hit the power button and go into "sleep" mode or, I guess until it goes into autolock (per whatever time you input in settings for that)..but then OBVIOUSLY you need to use your phone again usually in a few seconds or minutes if you're a typical, modern user, so to have to CONSTANTLY (when this occurs) go INTO sleep mode JUST to protect yourself (your privacy of your phone) is f'ing annoying. Again, the only reason I write all this is not to be mean or hurtful but to HELP users and to help Apple and to add value to Apple (cuz how could someone not share this experience?), since this is a perfect issue for community and for people to come together and TRY to figure out what app or apps is/are causing this.
NOTHING seems to make a difference. I've experimented with seemingly all settings/various combinations eg cellular on/off and roaming on/off and wifi on/off and airplance mode on/off. I thought (?) at one point that the airplane mode helped...but I think that was just for a while. I have to check again. I even changed my wifi password and my router passwords and keys.
So I have to be truthful to myself: Since, remember, I had this problem BEFORE & AFTER my iPhone 6 replacement from Apple, since the phone arrived (presumably) clean, when I restored from iCloud, we obviously have to consider (right?) that it is one of the apps (or a security weakness that's being exploited by some developers, or maybe even by some spyware that's out there on the market, bought by jealous people... and I should add one eery thing in that vein: I noticed the activity was going on for about an hour or two (?), but when my "i'm not jealous type" gf got home, and parted from her phone ....the problem suddenly stopped. I'm not crazy. I just want this majorly important iPhone issue fixed since it's affecting my life very seriously. I haven't even read past a couple pages here, so I'm guessing that I'm going to read a lot of what I just described (but presented in much smaller pieces). Dear Apple, please bring this to the attention of your top people. I know you have a lot on your plate, but actually, nothing comes before this. This issue should be #1 since, no matter how you cut it, there's obviously a security flaw that's being exploited and wreaking major havoc. Thanks and hopefully you'll fix this ASAP cuz it's affecting me every day and affecting my productivity, peace of mind and (obviously) overall user satisfaction. I like iPhone. I want to stay with iPhone, but, judging from all the smug, snarky and dismissive replies re “butt dialing” and “it didn’t happen” etc by level 9’s here, Apple’s not taking this issue seriously. Instead of FIXING it, it’s DISMISSING it. This is a MASSIVE security flaw. People keep describing this year after year after year. Don’t sidestep the problem. FIX THE PROBLEM, because what everyone’s describing here is a massive breach in security and personal security that’s clearly not only affecting iPhone 5 but also iPhone 6. The problem is NOT the hardware or “a defective touchscreen”. It’s a security malware/spyware that behaves VERY SIMILAR TO what you might see in a faulty touch-screen…only much more malicious and PURPOSEFUL as you can see from the details I’ve shared above. Obviously the software is hacking (accessing) the IOS in ways that NO ONE SHOULD BE ABLE TO. It'll be Apple's job to test (control) all these variables one-by-one to professionally and properly narrow down, then find, the culprit app and/or code and/or security flaw. That's just my take, but an important set of experiences I wanted to share with everyone so that we can GET THIS RESOLVED IMMEDIATELY.