About application access to the webcam and microphone
Intruders may attempt to spy on you using your webcam or eavesdrop on you by gaining access to your microphone. The Kaspersky application protects your webcam and microphone from unauthorized access if the Webcam and Mic Control component is enabled. In component settings, you can block all application access to webcam and microphone or request to be notified whenever an application tries to gain access to your webcam or microphone.
If the component is enabled, but access to your webcam and mic is not fully blocked, access is granted or denied based on the trust group that the relevant application is part of. Access is blocked for applications in the High Restricted or Untrusted groups.
In the Intrusion Prevention settings window, you can allow access to the webcam or mic for applications included in the High Restricted and Untrusted groups. If an application from the Low Restricted group is trying to gain access to the webcam or microphone, the Kaspersky application blocks the access and notifies you if you have configured notifications in component settings.
In the drop-down list of the notification, you can block application access to webcam or microphone, or go to access settings. The notification is not displayed if some applications are running in full-screen mode on your computer.
In the drop-down list of the notification, you can choose to hide notifications or proceed to configure notification display settings.
How Kaspersky manages the webcam
By default, the Kaspersky application allows webcam access to applications that require your permission when the application's GUI is still being loaded, unloaded, or not responding, and you cannot allow access manually.
Webcam access protection functionality has the following features and limitations:
- The Kaspersky application controls video and still images derived from processing of webcam data.
- The Kaspersky application controls the audio signal if it is part of the video stream coming from the webcam.
- The Kaspersky application controls only webcams connected via USB or IEEE1394 that are displayed in Windows Device Manager as Imaging Devices.
Click this link to view the list of supported webcams.
To activate protection against unauthorized access to the webcam, the Intrusion Prevention component must be enabled.
Webcam Protection has limitations if the application was installed in Microsoft Windows 10 Anniversary Update (RedStone 1).
How Kaspersky manages the microphone
Microphone protection has the following special features:
- The Intrusion Prevention component has to be enabled for this functionality to work.
- After the settings of application access to sound recording devices have been changed (for example, the application has been prohibited from receiving the audio stream in the Intrusion Prevention settings window), this application has to be restarted to stop it from receiving the audio stream.
- The Kaspersky application protects access to built-in microphones and external microphones only. Other audio streaming devices are not supported.
- The Kaspersky application allows an application to receive an audio stream and does not show any notifications if the application began to receive the audio stream before the Kaspersky application was started, or if you placed the application into the Untrusted or High Restricted group after the application began to receive the audio stream.
- In some cases, the Kaspersky application detects that some application is accessing a microphone, although no microphone is actually connected to the device.
The Kaspersky application does not guarantee protection of the audio stream from such devices as DSLR cameras, camcorders, and action cameras.