Last Updated on January 1, 2020
©Snopes
Smart home devices have come to make our lives easier to do everyday tasks and are here to stay. And with them came the feeling of greater convenience, modernity, and security. But are you that safe in your smart home? Get to know 7 home devices that may be spying on you.
#1 – Laptops
Laptops are one of the most desirable targets by hackers for collecting intimate or confidential documentation and information.
They use specific malware or software that allows them to activate and control your laptop’s camera when you think it is turned off.
The laptop spy camera gives hackers the ability to spy on their victims – take pictures and videos without their consent – to blackmail them and extort money when they have intimate and confidential documents in their possession (such as photos or videos with nudity).
#2 – Smart TVs
Smart TVs can be accessed by hackers who have the goal of controlling everything you see, adjusting your TV’s settings, and gathering all sorts of information from the USB and network devices that may be connected to it.
Smart TV has more and more features (many of them have camcorders for face recognition or audio recordings) and this is an added value for hackers who use specific malware as it allows them to spy on everything that goes on in your home when the television is turned off.
#3 – Smartphones
Your mobile provider has access to your data, knows where you are, what you communicate with, which apps you install and run on your smartphone, and much more – and this information can be easily accessed by specific malware (including capture photos or videos through smartphone cameras) without you noticing.
Even when you use your phone’s android voice assistant to help answer your questions, you may be spied on.
It’s easy for smartphones to “confuse” normal user conversations with “Ok Google” voice control, which makes smartphones start recording (this feature lasts up to 10 minutes and can be used as a spy recording device) without you realizing it.
