Privacy Indicator discreetly alerts you when an app uses the microphone or camera, like in iOS 14

After you give an application permission to access camera or microphone, there is no real way to know when you are using that permission. Privacy Indicator borrows from iOS 14 the idea of ​​displaying it discreetly, with a colored circle superimposed on the screen.

It is not the first application to do it – we were talking to you a few months ago about Access Dots– although Privacy Indicator adds some extra customization functions and allows you to consult the record of which apps have used each permission In a simple way.

A prompt when using the camera or microphone

Good ideas transcend between operating systems and applications, and the truth is that visual prompts when an app is using critical permissions like camera or microphone they are. On Android, Google’s efforts have been more to limit what apps can do in the background, which is fine, but there is always the question of whether everything is working as it should.

Privacy Indicator brings these visual notifications to Android as notification LEDs. The application does not require permissions for the camera or the microphone, but rather use Android accessibility permissions to find out as soon as another application. The Privacy Policy It contains a generic text, although the application specifies that it does not use accessibility permissions to collect any type of personal information.

After activating the permission, the location, color and even animation of these little circles can be configured with a little more precision than in other similar applications. By default, you will see an orange circle when an app uses the microphone, a green one when the camera is used and a red one when both are used (when recording video, for example), although you can choose any other color of your liking.

Visual prompts work as expected, showing accurately as soon as an app is using the camera or microphone, and disappearing on their own a few seconds later. A very interesting addition to Privacy Indicator is that it includes a log of all applications that have been found using these permissions.

This record is available at Usage History and shows the name of the app, the date and time the permit was used and for how long, being a good tool to capture red-handed applications that could spy on you when you are not attentive to your mobile.

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Privacy Indicator discreetly alerts you when an app uses the microphone or camera, like in iOS 14

was originally published in

Xataka Android

by
Ivan Ramirez

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