What does the orange or green dot in the menu bar on my Mac mean?

Be very careful if you see any of these points in the menu bar of your Mac.

Apple has decided to bet completely on the security of its devices and, therefore, that of its users. Those from Cupertino have been working hard in recent years to make their ecosystem much saferThey demonstrated this by launching the Privacy Report feature with iOS 15.2, and even caring about the well-being of their older devices by releasing a security patch for iOS 12 just a few months ago.

If you’ve been paying attention to your Mac, You have probably seen a green or orange dot in the menu bar of your computer. Don’t worry, this function is a security feature that is also present on iPhone and iPad, but today we are here to tell you what these colored dots mean on your Mac and what to do when they appear.

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What do the colored dots on my Mac mean?

As we mentioned earlier, this feature first came to iPhone and iPad devices. The reason? Some popular apps were found to be accessing users’ cameras and microphones without permission or notification, totally in the background and with total ignorance of the users. For this reason, Apple decided to launch a way to let its users know that their privacy could be in danger.

Now thanks to the arrival of macOS Monterey and all its news, the green and orange dots have also reached Mac computers. Here we are going to tell you what each of these colors means and what to do if you do not stop seeing them.

What does the green dot on my Mac mean?

If you’ve seen a green dot in your Mac’s menu bar, it means that some of the apps you have recently opened or are running in the background on your Mac are using the device’s camera. In fact, if you tap on the button you will see that a bubble shows us the camera icon in green, along with the application that was recently using it.

In case you have been the one who has used the camera of the Mac, then you already know that you are not in any danger. However, if the warning continues to appear without you having done anything, maybe you want to take a look at your Mac’s privacy settings. Below we will tell you how to do it.

What does the orange dot on my Mac mean?

If instead of a green dot in the menu bar what you see is an orange one, it means that some application is accessing or has recently accessed the microphone on your Mac. Of course, it is normal for it to appear if you have been making a video call through FaceTime or any other app of this style or if you have been using your Mac to record, for example, a podcast.

In case you want to see which app has recently accessed your Mac’s microphone, just click the dot when it appears. You will see a bubble with the microphone icon in orange, and next to it, the app that recently accessed it.

What to do if I see a green or orange dot on my Mac

If you’ve seen the point, you might be wondering how you can remove it from your Mac. However, there really isn’t a way to disable it. This function is more of a help from the operating system to let us know that an application is using the microphone or the camera. of our device, so in any case the best idea is to leave it as it is.

What you can do is take a look at the privacy settings of your applications. If you see one of the two points very often and without having used your Mac’s camera or microphone, it is likely that some application is using them without you realizing it. To check app permissions on your Mac just follow these steps:

1. Enter a System preferences.
2. And al panel too Security and Privacy.
3. Here, tap on Camera or Microphone.
4. will display a list of apps who is allowed access to one of the two functions. Turn off the ones you want or don’t need.

Apple recently released a feature-packed update for macOS Monterey, and if you haven’t updated yet, we urge you to do so quickly. In addition, we have made a compilation of shortcuts for macOS Monterey that will make your life much easier, and that is that Siri Shortcuts have come from the iPhone to the Mac thanks to the most recent version of the computer operating system created by those of Cupertino. If after this article you have worried about the security of your Mac, here we tell you how you can configure the privacy options that have come with macOS Monterey.

Related topics: Mac

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