There are a ton of tools out there to help ensure your computer is not compromised. One I see a lot of people using is a small sticker over their built-in laptop camera to keep any prying eyes from infiltrating and recording what they are up to. I think this is a great idea and everyone should do it.
But here’s the thing: for many of us, it is not as much the video feed that will be the source of interest, it is your laptop’s microphone. If you are in a meeting discussing sensitive information, all the video camera will pick up is you sitting there talking with no sound. I am guessing that in most cases this is not very interesting to someone who is trying to compromise your privacy and the privacy of those in the meeting.
What is much more valuable is the audio, what is being said in the meeting, and we know that the audio is just as easy to hack as the video camera. To be frank, that tiny sticker on your laptop camera is giving you a false sense of security.
Luckily, there is a great tool I have used for years that acts as an intermediary between your laptop’s microphone, as well as your built-in camera. The best part is that it is free! The other best part is that it is a tiny program that is super-easy to install. The only downside is that the tool is built for Mac users only.
It is called Oversight and it was developed by Object-See, a team of programmers and privacy experts who spend a lot of time thinking about security on Mac computers.
Once you have loaded Oversight on to your Mac you will get a pop-up when a piece of software tries to access your microphone and/or camera. You can then tell Oversight whether you want to always allow the particular program to access your mic and/or camera, or you can tell it to allow access the one time only.
Download Oversight today and seriously up your computer’s security.