If you see these icons on your Windows taskbar, open your privacy panel immediately

The Windows taskbar is something that we see all the time, but don’t pay much attention to. It’s there. It exists. And if you’re like most people, you probably only use it for interacting with the Start menu, switching apps, or accessing the Quick Settings every now and then.

But hidden in that quiet corner of your screen are a few icons that deserve way more attention than they get. These icons appear when apps are using sensitive features like your microphone or your location. And if you ignore them for too long, you might be giving away more of your privacy than you realize.

Most people ignore these taskbar icons, but they’re crucial

These icons are trying to tell you something

Every time an app uses your microphone, you’ll see a tiny microphone icon right next to the system tray. If you hover over it, Windows will show you the name of the app that’s using it. If multiple apps are listening or recording at once, Windows will list all of them.

This works the same way for location access. When an app is accessing your location, you’ll see a tiny arrow instead. And if both your microphone and location are being accessed at once, you’ll see both icons stacked together.

The problem is that most people never notice these indicators, or they see them and never bother to check what they mean. Also, these icons disappear as soon as the app stops using the microphone or location, so they are very easy to miss. It’s not like your webcam’s LED indicator that lights up right in front of you. They’re small, quiet icons that appear in a corner you rarely focus on, but they’re just as important.

A look at the privacy menu can reveal more

The activity log most people never open

Even if you miss the microphone and location taskbar icons, you can still check which apps are using your PC’s sensitive features. For that, you need to dive into Windows’ privacy settings.

Head to Settings > Privacy & security > App permissions and click Microphone. Expand Recent activity, and you’ll see a list of apps that have accessed your mic in the past 7 days. It also shows the exact date and time each app used it. This makes it easy to determine whether the activity lines up with something you actually did, like joining a video call, or whether an app accessed your mic when you were not expecting it.

The same applies for location tracking. Go back to App permissions and click Location instead. You will see which apps have used your location and when. And while Windows doesn’t show a camera icon when an app is using your webcam, you can find details about camera activity in the privacy menu.

This menu is basically a detailed history of which apps have been peeking behind the curtain. The taskbar icons show you what’s happening in the moment, and the privacy settings show you what has been happening over time.

Stop these apps from invading your privacy before it’s too late

Cut off unnecessary access

Knowing which apps are accessing your microphone, camera, or location is only half the battle. If something looks suspicious, you also need to know how to put a stop to it. Of course, the most straightforward way is to just uninstall the app or program, but that’s not always an option or even necessary. In some cases, you might actually need the app, just not its constant access to your personal data.

To get around this, you can revoke camera, location, or microphone permissions for such apps. Head to Settings > Privacy & security > App permissions and select the permission you want to manage. Then expand Let apps access your camera/microphone/location and use the toggles to revoke access for apps that don’t need it.

One tricky part is that when a website uses your microphone or location, Windows’s taskbar icon or privacy menu will only show the name of the browser. This means you won’t be able to tell which website was actually accessing it from the taskbar.

If you don’t want to revoke camera or microphone access for your browser entirely, most browsers also show information about which websites have accessed your PC’s sensitive features like the camera, microphone, or location. For instance, in Edge, you can head to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Site permissions > Recent activity to see if any website has accessed your camera, microphone, or location. You can then click on the website that looks suspicious and block its access from there.

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Most of us don’t really pay much attention when setting up an app for the first time. In a rush to try something new, we often grant all the permission an app needs without thinking it through. The good thing is that Windows has your back and can notify you when apps use sensitive information. But it is still up to you to notice those indicators and act on them before they become a bigger problem.