Technology
iPhone warning sign means your camera is being watched
YOUR iPhone has a handy warning sign that reveals if an app is using your camera.
It’s a great tool for anyone who has ever worried that apps might be spying on them.
A green dot indicates that your camera is active
Your iPhone has a camera on the front and back, so privacy is important.
If apps were surreptitiously activating your camera, that would be a huge invasion of privacy.
Thankfully, Apple has built in a coloured alert system to notify you of such shenanigans.
A useful green and orange dot system on iPhone can alert you whenever your microphone or camera is activated.
So, if any app happens to be recording you, you’ll know about it.
This feature was added to iPhone in the iOS 14 update but you may not have noticed it before.
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A small green dot appears in the upper right corner of the screen when the camera is activated.
Try clicking on your camera app and you see the green dot pop up.
It will appear orange if the microphone was activated.
Apple’s support page notes: “This indicator appears as an orange square if the Differentiate Without Colour setting is on.”
By swiping into your Control Centre, you’ll be able to see details about which app is using the microphone.
If you suspect something is up, you should check the app’s permissions in Settings.
You can deny specific apps access to your microphone or camera, for instance.
And if you’re really worried, you could just delete the app altogether.
Remember to make sure you’ve updated your iPhone to at least iOS 14 before you try and use the feature.
If you’ve updated recently, you’re probably using iOS 15 – which is even better.
To check, go to Settings > General > Software Update and look for the version.
If an update is available, you should download and install it for the latest security protections.
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