These days, we depend on our phones, laptops and various devices for pretty much everything. The thought of leaving my house without my phone is unthinkable and falling asleep without watching TV on my laptop seems impossible.

Screen time may have a negative connotation with children, but adults are free to be on their computers, laptops and phones as much as they want.

Your devices might connect you to the world, but using them comes with a reasonable expectation of privacy.

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If I’m home alone on my laptop, there shouldn’t be anyone there with me. However, webcams make it easier to spy on people than ever before.

I don’t know about you, but the idea of someone watching me through my webcam is one of the most alarming things I can think of.

Luckily, you don’t have to go to great lengths to help secure your webcam from peeping Toms.

When you’re in your room on your laptop, you think you’re alone. Sadly, more and more stories about people, particularly women having their webcams hacked are surfacing.

One Houston mom received a call from a friend who saw a photo of her daughter’s room on Facebook that she, or her daughter never took according to ABC News. 

The family discovered that her daughter’s webcam had been hacked through a program she was playing on.

According to Teen Vogue, a former Miss Teen USA was blackmailed by a hacker who took photos of her changing in her room via her webcam.

It iss inherently difficult to find hackers. The scariest part is just how easy it is for people to see these videos — they don’t even have to be hackers.

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There are thousands of websites online that provide live feeds of insecure webcams.

For instance, the website insecam.com provides thousands of feeds from security cameras all over the world for anyone to see.

Private cameras have since been removed, but it just goes to show how easy it is to gain access.

So, how can you tell when your camera has been hacked? Most webcams have a built in light that displays when they are being used.

Is your camera on when the application isn’t open? You might want to shut down any applications that use the camera, and cover the lens with something opaque.

The easiest, and simplest way to protect you from apps like this is to simply cover your computer camera.

There are special devices to do this that allow you to open and close access to your camera.

However, many people are just as quick to cover their laptop cameras with a little masking tape.

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This probably goes without saying, but you can also stop people from spying on you through your webcam by just closing your laptop.

Of course, not everyone has a laptop, but if you do, you should keep it closed as much as possible just in case.

It’s always a good idea to scan your computer for viruses. However, a traditional virus scanner might not be heavy duty enough to find webcam breaches.

Last but not least, be mindful of who is sending you emails.

We all get junk, but our emails aren’t always as efficient as they should be about filtering out the harmful stuff.

Truth is, it can be tempting to open an email from an unknown sender with an attachment. However, emails like this often contain viruses that make your computer more vulnerable to hacking.

Be sure to SHARE this useful information with your friends and family!