Mac Security · Mac Privacy Controls · Lesson 2 of 5

Camera, Microphone and Location

Read the dots in the menu bar and decide who gets to know where your Mac is.

Dots beside Control Center

Your Mac tells you when it's seeing or hearing you. Look at the right end of the menu bar, the strip across the top of the screen. Find Control Center, the icon that looks like two small switches. Just to its right, a privacy indicator may appear. That's a small dot or symbol that shows something private is in use.

• An orange dot means the microphone is on.
• A green dot means a camera is on.
• A purple dot means your Mac's sound, called system audio, is being recorded.
• An arrow means your Mac's location is being used.

Only one dot shows at a time, even if more than one thing is in use.

Many Mac laptops and displays also have a small green light right beside the built-in camera. It turns on whenever that camera is in use. If you ever see it glow when you aren't on a call, pay attention.

A dot tells you that something is in use, but not who is using it. To find out, click Control Center. At the top, a field may list the apps using your microphone, camera, location or system audio. Click that field to see more in a Privacy window.

This is the same idea as the dots on an iPhone, which you may know from the Mobile side.

When a dot appears, ask yourself one question. Did I just start something that needs this? A video call, a voice memo, a map. If yes, all is well.

If not, open Control Center and see which app it is. Quit that app. Then go to System Settings › Privacy & Security, open Camera or Microphone, and turn that app's switch off.

Location Services and System Services

Location Services lets apps and websites use your Mac's location. Your Mac works out where it is mostly from nearby Wi-Fi networks. It's useful for maps, weather and finding a lost Mac.

To review it, open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services. You'll see:

• A main switch at the top that turns Location Services on or off for everything.
• A list of apps, each with its own switch.
• At the bottom, System Services with a Details button.

Go through the app list the same way you did in the last lesson. A weather app makes sense. A photo editor or a game usually doesn't need to know where you are. Turn off the ones that don't.

Websites ask too. In Safari, a site may ask to use your location. You can say no, and the site will still work for most things.

System Services are parts of macOS itself that use location. Click Details to see them. Examples include setting your time zone, location-based suggestions, and Significant Locations. Significant Locations is a private list of places you visit often, which Apple uses for features like predicting travel time. You can turn it off here.

One service is worth keeping on. Find My uses location to help you find your Mac if it's lost or stolen. Turning off the main Location Services switch stops that too.

So instead of switching everything off, trim the list. Leave on the few apps and services you truly use. Turn off the rest. When an app needs it again later, it will ask, and you can decide then.

The arrow in the menu bar is your reminder. If you see it and you aren't using a map or similar app, check Control Center to see who is asking.