Microsoft is developing a new privacy dashboard to patch its vulnerabilities for Windows 11 that will allow users to view which apps and tools have access to sensitive hardware components such as the camera, microphone, location, phone calls, messages, and screenshots. It's included in one of June Windows 11 Preview Builds and now is ready for testing in the Dev Channel for Windows Insiders.
Users will be able to view the newly implemented tool in the Privacy & Security > App Permissions section, where a "Recent activity" option will be available, as per Microsoft. Users will be able to locate the monitored category of information in this section. "Once clicked, it will show every instance of one of the programs installed on a user's machine that has recently accessed sensitive devices and information," says the next step. Even though the list contains information about the most recent time the program accessed the service, clicking on any of the entries yields no additional information.
Several users would be able to proactively protect themselves from ransomware and phishing attacks that are unwittingly deployed by malicious actors due to this additional layer of privacy. Malware or malicious software may obtain access to a user's privacy in some cases via spying on its camera or microphone, or by reading file paths, process IDs, or process names.
If Windows Hello is turned off, your PC will be unable to access your camera. Some apps use the Camera app to capture pictures, by the Camera app's camera access setting. No images will be taken and sent to the app that accessed them unless you manually select the capture button in the Camera app.
Desktop apps can be downloaded from the internet, stored on a USB drive, or installed by your IT administrator. Microsoft has not yet officially launched this new privacy option, according to its Windows Insider Blog. This information comes from Microsoft's Vice President of Enterprise and OS Security, David Weston, in a tweet on Thursday.
Windows has never had a privacy feature as useful as this, but it appears that Microsoft is working to strengthen the operating system's privacy controls. With Android version 12, Google provided a similar capability, although its execution is far from satisfactory.
