How to tell if someone is snooping on your PC or Mac

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How to tell if someone is snooping on your PC or Mac – Guide

Your computer has a wealth of personal data about you. It’s used for everything from interacting with relatives to keeping track of your finances. If someone gains access to your system, they can obtain your account information, passwords, images, videos, and other personal information. Fortunately, there is software available to scan your Mac for any malware.

How to know if someone is snooping on your PC or Mac

Check your PC’s recent items

So someone is scouring your computer, opening your files and apps left and right, there must be traces of that, right? Correct. On both PCs and Macs, there are quick and easy ways to view recently accessed files, folders, and even applications. With these tools, if you notice an item that you don’t remember opening, that’s a sure sign that an unauthorized party is accessing your system without your knowledge. Here’s how you view your recent items on PCs and Macs:

on the computer

Open a File Explorer window by clicking the taskbar shortcut, opening the Documents folder, or pressing Windows key + E.

On the left side of the File Explorer menu, click “Quick Access”. This will show you a list of files that have been opened recently. If you see something on this list that you don’t remember opening, someone could be snooping on your computer.

on Mac

Click on the Apple logo on the left side of the menu bar.

Hover over “Recent Items”

Here, you will see the 10 most recently accessed items in three categories: Apps, Documents and Servers

Open a Finder window

While the window is active, click “Go” on the menu bar

Hover over “Recent Folders”. Similar to “Recent Items”, you will see the 10 folders that were accessed most recently

Check your web browser history

Another good area to check for unauthorized access is browsing activity. While an experienced user can always use a web browser’s incognito or private browsing mode or delete their browsing histories, it doesn’t hurt to review web browsing activity for snoopers.

Google Chrome

1. Click on the three vertical dots in the upper-right corner of the Chrome window.
2. Hover over “History”.

Mozilla Firefox

Click the “View History, Saved Bookmarks and More” icon in the menu bar (looks like a row of books).

Click on “History”.

Microsoft edge

Click on the “Hub” icon (it looks like a speeding star).

Click on “History”.

Safari

open safari

In the Apple menu bar, click “History >> Show All History”.

Review your computer’s logon events

To see all login activity on your PC, use Windows Event Viewer. This tool will show all the Windows services that have been accessed, as well as logins, errors and warnings. To access the Windows Event Viewer, go to Control Panel >> System and Security >> Administrative Tools >> Event Viewer. An easier way to access Event Viewer is to simply press Windows + R keys. Type “eventvwr” in the “Run” dialog box. This will open the Event Viewer. Now, in the left pane, click on an item called Security.

This will show you a list of all login events on your PC. In the Event ID column, look for the number 4624 for standard logins, 4672 for administrative logins, and 4634 for logoffs. Click on the entry for additional details and check if another user has logged into your system while you are away. On Macs, you can use the Console tool to see if someone has tried to wake your computer while it is locked or in sleep mode. To access this tool, use Spotlight Search (Command + Space), search for the word “Console” and press Enter. In the console window, click on “All messages” and in the Search field (upper right side of the window) type “wake” to see all relevant events and their timestamps.

now that you know how to locate computer spies, here it is how to kick them out

Locking your computer and using a strong password to log back in are two of the most basic computer security fundamentals that we always recommend. In office spaces, the lock screen is a feature that suspends your activities and protects your work from potential snoopers without completely shutting down your computer. Always lock your computer when you’re out, so potential snoopers can’t access it. In Windows, you can use Windows + L hotkey to quickly lock your PC.

On a Mac, you can use the shortcut Control + Shift + Eject (Control + Shift + Power button on Macs without disk drives) or Control + Command + Q to quickly lock it. You can also click on the Apple logo in the menu bar and select Lock Screen. While you’re at it, make sure you have a strong password for your account. When it’s your own computer, you might get in the habit of using a simple password so you can log in faster. That’s why many people use weak passwords like “password” or “123456”, bad idea. Hackers can guess an easy password in minutes.

Final note

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