Applies to: Sophos Home Premium for MacOS

Privacy Guard is a Sophos Home Premium feature that protects against unwanted use of the webcam and microphone of your computer. Sophos Home notifies you when a non-Apple signed application that uses a camera and microphone is launched and provides users the option to Stop, Allow, or Always allow it. 

This article demonstrates how to add trusted applications to the Webcam/Microphone exceptions (Privacy Guard exceptions). 

Instructions

To add your trusted application to the Webcam/Microphone exceptions:

1. Launch the application that you want to allow. 
2. Access the webcam or microphone through the application. For example, start a videocall/use anything audio/microphone related in said app. This notifies you that the microphone or camera is currently active.
   
3. Clicking Allow will allow the current process to continue, however, a new notification will pop-up on subsequent use. Clicking Stop will prevent an application from using the mic/camera, subsequent uses will trigger new notifications. 
4. If you wish to always allow an application to use the camera/mic, trigger the detection, click on the Sophos Home Shield and choose Always Allow.
   
   Note: If trying to allow a video-calling application, consider running the application's audio/video test in order to trigger the detections. 
   Note 2: Applications that require holding the mouse left-click to start audio recording may also trigger the detection if using a right-click instead (this may allow users to leave the microphone running, while also being able to click on the Sophos Home Shield)
   
   
5. Check that the application has been added in the Webcam/Microphone exceptions.
   

Once the application has already been added to the exceptions, you will no longer receive notifications whenever it uses the camera or microphone.

Related information

• Removing an application from the Privacy Guard exceptions
• Disabling webcam protection