If you see these icons on your Windows Taskbar, open the privacy panel immediately!

The Windows Taskbar is something we see all the time but don't pay much attention to. And if you're like most people, you probably only use it to interact with the Start menu, switch apps, or occasionally access Quick Settings.

 

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

Most people ignore these icons on the Taskbar, but they are very important.

These symbols are trying to tell you something.

 

Whenever an application is using your microphone, you'll see a small microphone icon next to your system tray. If you hover over the icon, Windows will show you the name of the application that's using it. If multiple applications are listening or recording at the same time, Windows will list them all.

The same goes for location access. When an app is accessing your location, you'll see a little arrow. And if both your microphone and location are being accessed at the same time, you'll see both icons stacked on top of each other.

The problem is that most people never notice these indicators, or they see them but don't bother to check what they mean. Furthermore, these icons disappear as soon as the application stops using the microphone or location, so they're easy to miss. It's not like the webcam LED is right in front of you. They're small, quiet icons in a corner that you rarely notice, but they're just as important.

Viewing the privacy menu may reveal more information

Activity logs that most people never open

 

Even if you miss the microphone icon and its location on the Taskbar, you can still check which apps are using sensitive features on your PC. To do that, you need to learn more about Windows privacy settings.

Go to Settings > Privacy & security > App permissions and tap Microphone . Expand Recent activity and you'll see a list of apps that have accessed your microphone in the last 7 days. This list also shows the exact date and time each app used your microphone. This makes it easy to determine whether this activity matches something you actually did, like joining a video call, or whether an app accessed your microphone when you didn't expect it.

This also applies to location tracking. Go back to App permissions and click Location . You'll see which apps have used your location and when. While Windows won'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 essentially a detailed history of which apps have hidden themselves. Taskbar icons show what was going on at the time, and privacy settings show what happened over time.

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

Prevent 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 stop it. Of course, the easiest way is to uninstall the app or program, but that's not always an option, or even necessary. In some cases, you may really need the app, but it doesn't always have ongoing access to your personal data.

 

To fix this, you can revoke camera, location, or microphone access for those apps. Go to Settings > Privacy & security > App permissions and select the permissions 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 problem is that when a website uses your microphone or location, the Taskbar icon or Windows privacy menu will only show the browser name. This means you won't be able to tell which website is actually accessing it from the Taskbar.

If you don't want to completely revoke your browser's access to your camera or microphone, most browsers also show you which sites have accessed sensitive features on your computer like your camera, microphone, or location. For example, in Edge, you can go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Site permissions > Recent activity to see if any sites have accessed your camera, microphone, or location. You can then click on the site that looks suspicious and block its access from there.

Most of us don't pay much attention when setting up an app for the first time. In our rush to try something new, we often grant the app all the permissions it needs without thinking twice. The good thing is that Windows has your back and can notify you when an app is using sensitive information. But you still have to look out for these signs and take action before they become bigger problems.