Gearies Primary E-safety
by Gearies Primary Digital Leaders 2013
As online video usage grows, so does the risk of compromising your webcam safety.
If you use a camera connected to your computer, your webcam safety could be compromised by hackers. Hackers can invade your privacy by ‘looking’ through your webcam. They can also take photos from your webcam and watch everything you do.
How to use a webcam safely
How to increase your webcam safety
• Ensure you have up to date Internet security software installed.
• Unplug the camera or cover the lens when not in use; many newer model webcams come with a privacy shield that slides across the lens.
• Look for the camera's operation light coming on when you're not using it; this is by no means a failsafe -- recent research suggests hackers using special web camera programs may be able to switch off the light.
• If the camera is built-in but you don't use it, disable it. It's beyond the scope of this report to explain how to do this, but either find a good online tutorial such as About's How to Disable a Webcam or get someone who knows how to do it disable it for you.
• Don't locate the camera anywhere where its usage might give away details of your location or provide other valuable information to thieves.
• Don't do anything in front of a camera that you wouldn't mind the whole world seeing. Hackers may even be able to access your camera while you're using it with someone else and record your actions.
For parents: