In macOS Monterey Apple added a system whereby a green or orange dot may appear in the menu bar of our Mac. A dot located right next to the button that gives us access to the Control Center and tells us some of the state of our machine. Let’s see what it is.
A dot-shaped privacy notice
Having an iPhone or an iPad, it is possible that we already know these two points, although we may not know exactly what they mean either. The truth is that they mean exactly the same as on the Mac: access to the camera or microphone of our device. A fundamental information to know what happens with these two important peripherals.
- A green dotindicates that an app on your Mac is using the camera .
- A small orange dotindicates that an app on your Mac is using the microphone .
Whenever any application or service, even those of the system, access the camera or microphone we will see this indicator appear. In addition, the absence of the indicator indicates that what is possibly the most private information on our computer is not being accessed. With this at a given time and at a glance we have a quick overview of the situation.
If we wish, we can check which app is accessing the microphone or the camera. To do this we just have to open the Control Center . We will see that just to the right of the orange or green buttons the name of the application responsible for access appears.
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Remember, since we are talking about the subject, that the first time an application wants to access the camera or microphone of our Mac, it must ask us for permission . This ensures that no one accesses without our consent, but it is the responsibility of these little indicators to let us know when, after allowing access, apps use the camera or microphone. An excellent measure for our privacy: simple and effective.