To see which apps can use your camera, open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Camera, and turn off any app you don't recognize or no longer use. A switch that's on is permission, not use: the built-in camera can't turn on without its green light, and a green dot next to Control Center shows when any camera is in use.
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Where to find it
System Settings › Privacy & Security › Camera
Camera access lets an app take photos and video with your Mac's built-in camera or a connected webcam. The list in System Settings shows the apps you installed that asked for it; FaceTime, Photo Booth and other apps that come with your Mac have access without asking. Apple designed the built-in camera so it can't turn on without the green indicator light beside it.
Choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Privacy & Security in the sidebar.
The list shows the apps you've installed that asked to use the camera. If it's empty, no app you installed has asked.
Video calls, recording and streaming apps need the camera. A utility or game with the switch on is worth a closer look.
In Privacy & Security > Camera, turn off the switch next to the app. It loses camera access straight away.
Some apps keep working until they restart. Quit the app (Command-Q) and open it again to confirm it can't use the camera.
If you don't know what an app is, find out where it came from before deleting it. If it has its own uninstaller, use that.
With Full Disk Access, CoreLock's free Privacy report lists the apps macOS has granted the camera and flags any still held by apps you've deleted; a grant is not proof the camera was used. Separately, CoreLock's menu bar shows when the camera is in use and by which app, from the in-use state macOS keeps. It doesn't record or block the camera.
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Not the built-in camera. Apple says it's engineered so it can't activate without the camera indicator light also turning on, and the Apple Platform Security guide says the design is meant to stop any untrusted software, even with root or kernel privileges, from using the camera without lighting it. An external webcam's light depends on its maker.
A green dot next to the Control Center icon in the menu bar means a camera is in use; open Control Center to see which app. CoreLock's menu bar also shows which app is using it right now. The Camera list in System Settings shows which apps are allowed, not which one is using it.
A browser asks for the camera so websites can use it for video calls. Turning it off in System Settings stops every website in that browser. Most people keep it on and manage camera access per website in the browser's own settings; in Safari that's Safari > Settings > Websites > Camera.
The app can't use your camera, and most show a message saying it needs access. You can turn it back on any time in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Camera.
The Privacy report and the scan are free, with no account, on macOS 13 or later.
Apple silicon build 2.0.7 · Intel Mac?
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