How Many Cameras Are Pointed at You Right Now?
By The Most Secure Man Alive | WISECLICK Ambassador
Take a look around the room you're in.
Count the devices with a camera.
Laptop. Phone. Tablet. Smart TV. Doorbell. Baby monitor. Security camera. Smart speaker with a screen.
Most people get to five or six before they realise they've stopped counting. I find this worth knowing.
Two Very Different Kinds of Watching
Not all cameras present the same kind of concern. It helps to separate them.
The first kind is corporate. Your smart TV is almost certainly tracking what you watch — not through a camera, but through a technology called Automatic Content Recognition, or ACR. It quietly scans your screen, identifies what's playing, and sends that data back to the manufacturer and their advertising partners. This happens whether you're watching Netflix, a USB drive, or a gaming console connected through HDMI. Most people have never turned it off, because turning it off requires navigating three or four menu layers that most manufacturers don't advertise.
Your phone does something similar with app permissions. Dozens of apps have access to your camera and microphone — not because they need it, but because you said yes to a prompt once, months or years ago, and never revisited it.
This is legal. It is also largely invisible. I switched it off years ago and never missed it.
The second kind is criminal. This is less common but more serious. In 2025, security researchers found tens of thousands of internet-connected cameras streaming live online with no passwords or protections. Almost all of them were simply misconfigured. Most of those camera owners had no idea — and the fix was as simple as changing a default password and updating the firmware.
On laptops and phones, there's a related attack quietly referred to as camfecting — malware that activates your camera without your knowledge, often without the indicator light turning on. It's real, it's documented, and it's boringly preventable with a handful of basic habits.
Device by Device — What's Actually There (and What to Do About It)
Your laptop has a camera that spends most of the working day facing you. It's there for meetings — but it's worth knowing it's there. On most Windows laptops, advanced malware can bypass the little camera light. On newer MacBooks, hardware protections make that harder. Either way, a two-dollar physical cover means you never have to think about it again.
Your phone has two cameras, access to your location, your microphone, and most of your accounts. Check your camera permissions now: Settings → Privacy → Camera. You will almost certainly find apps on that list that have no business being there. Revoke access for anything you don't use weekly, and you'll already be ahead of most people.
Your smart TV. In a lot of Australian lounge rooms, older smart TVs from around 2018 to 2021 quietly have a camera tucked into the top bezel — designed for video calling and gesture control. Most people don't know whether their TV has one. Check your manual or search your model number and the word "camera." More importantly, find the ACR setting and turn it off. On LG: Settings → All Settings → General → Live Plus. On Samsung: Settings → Support → Terms & Policies → Viewing Information Services.
Your security camera or smart doorbell is meant to be watching — the question is, who else can see it? If the firmware hasn't been updated, the password is still the factory default, or it's a low-cost brand with no support, you're taking a gamble. Change the default password. Enable automatic firmware updates. Stick to brands that publish security updates.
Four Habits That Cost Nothing
For most small businesses, these four habits remove the majority of camera risk without buying a single new gadget.
1. Cover what you're not using.
A physical camera cover on your laptop is the simplest, most effective thing on this list. It costs less than a coffee. Mark Zuckerberg uses tape. The NSA recommends it. That is enough endorsement.
2. Audit your app permissions.
Once a month, on your phone: Settings → Privacy → Camera, Microphone, Location. Revoke anything that isn't core to your work or can't clearly explain why it needs access.
3. Turn off ACR on your smart TV.
It takes ten minutes. It stops your viewing habits from being packaged and sold.
4. Change default passwords on connected cameras.
A camera with a factory password isn't really a security camera. It's closer to a window.
Where This Sits in the Bigger Picture
On the checklist the Australian Signals Directorate calls the Essential 8, camera and device privacy sits under two pillars: application control — what software is allowed to run on your devices — and patching, which keeps firmware and apps up to date so known vulnerabilities are closed.
Most small business owners I meet have never run a simple check across those areas. Most are pleasantly surprised by how much they can fix in under an hour.
Curious how your own devices and systems stack up?
The Essential 8 Gap Assessment walks through all eight controls — including the ones tied to your devices, your access points, and everything in between. Twenty minutes. Plain English. A clear picture of where you stand and what's worth fixing first.
$149. No IT knowledge required.
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Stay protected, my friends.
— The Most Secure Man Alive
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