Are you terrified of being spied on by other people through your mobile phone camera or your computer webcam? You’re right to worry about this, since unfortunately this is a real risk, but you must not fall into paranoia. This would be of no use to you. In the next paragraphs of this tutorial, in fact, I will have the opportunity to explain how to understand if they spy on you from the camera.

If you are ready to start, I would say to put aside the chatter and go into the heart of the guide. Strength and courage! Make yourself comfortable! Take all the time you need to focus on reading the next lines! And, more importantly, try to implement the “tips” that I will give you. With the right patience, you will be able to face the topic in the best way: I guarantee it.

Realize if you are being spied through the camera of smartphone

Let’s first see how to understand if the camera is under control. Here are some tips that I hope can help you understand if you are actually spied on or not through the cameras with which your devices are equipped.

Verify the ‘Permissions’ of your apps

To understand if they are spying on you from the camera of the iPhone or an Android device, I recommend you to check the apps that have access to the camera. And, even more, those that have administrator privileges. These apps, in particular, can act on sensitive functions on the privacy side. In fact, they can control calls, messages, location of the device, microphone and, of course, also the camera.

If your device is controlled via a spy app, there is a good chance that it has access to the camera and administrator privileges, so it is essential to perform both of these checks.

Android

To check the permissions related to the camera, do this: if you use Android, go to the Settings menu> Apps> Permissions> Camera and find any suspicious apps; if, on the other hand, you are using an iPhone or iPad, go to the Settings> Privacy> Camera menu and find any suspicious apps. If you find suspicious apps, disable them and eventually uninstall them.

Now let’s move on to checking administrator privileges. If yours is an Android smartphone or tablet, you can check the list of apps with administrator privileges by going to the Settings> Security> Device administrators menu. If there are some doubtful ones in this list, you should disable them. Then, uninstall them from the device.

iPhone

On the iPhone, however, spy apps could be betrayed by the presence of custom profiles or VPN configurations. They use these softwares often use to send communications to cybercriminals who have taken control of the device.

To view the profiles installed on the iPhone, go to the Settings> General> Profiles menu (or in the Profile and device management menu), select any doubtful element and remove it, by pressing on the profile on the new screen that has opened. You don’t see the Profiles menu or the Profile and device management menu? If so, know that your iPhone doesn’t have custom configuration profiles.

To check the VPN configurations, instead, go to the Settings> General> VPN menu. If on the next screen there are suspicious configurations, remove them by going to the Settings> General> Reset menu, tapping on the Reset network settings item and confirming. By doing this, however, in addition to the suspicious VPNs, you will also eliminate the secure ones, as well as all the passwords of the wireless networks stored on your Apple device. Got it?

Identify the eventual spy-apps

Those indicated above are valid methods to identify all the apps that access the camera. So, also any spy apps. But there are other more specific procedures to identify the spy apps. These could offer the cybercriminal the possibility of control the camera and take pictures of the user without his knowledge.

To see if there are spy applications on your device, you can use special codes to be entered in the browser or dialer (the screen used to dial phone numbers). These codes, often, are used by the apps in question to guarantee access to their configuration panel.

Therefore, try typing in the browser of your smartphone / tablet the codes localhost:8888 and localhost:4444. Alternatively, open the dialer and write the code *12345. If, using one of these codes, the configuration menu of a spy app appears, your mobile phone is under control and, probably, you are spied on, even by the camera.

If you have a jailbroken iPhone or iPad, check the packages installed in Cydia, because even there you could find some spy apps.

Realize if you are being spied through the camera of your computer

Check permissions and LED of the webcam

Do you fear you can be spied on the webcam of your computer? I invite you to check the permissions and LED of the webcam.

To check which applications access the webcam in Windows 10, go to the Windows Settings menu (the gear icon located on the Start menu). Click Privacy> Camera (in the left sidebar) and check the lists of Microsoft Store applications and desktop applications that appear on the right.

On macOS, however, you can achieve the same result by opening System Preferences (the gear icon located on the Dock bar) and going to Security and Privacy> Privacy> Camera. If you find suspicious applications, disable them and eventually uninstall them from your computer.

Now let’s move on to the LED. The webcams turn on a small LED (usually green or white) to signal the user that they are active.

Some malwares are very sophisticated. They “turns off” the webcam LED shortly after its activation (it remains lit for a very short time). So, you have to pay close attention to this detail when using the computer. Especially if you notice unusual LED lights, even if short.