App permissions on Mac: see which apps can use your camera and more

Where to find app permissions on Mac

1. Choose Apple menu › System Settings, then click Privacy & Security in the sidebar.

2. Click a list: Camera, Microphone, Screen & System Audio Recording, Full Disk Access, Accessibility, Files & Folders, Automation and others. Each shows the apps that asked for it, with a switch next to each.

How to allow camera access on Mac

1. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Camera.
2. Turn on the switch next to the app. Do the same in Microphone for calls and recordings.

• If the app isn’t in the list, it hasn’t asked yet. Open it and start a call or a recording: macOS asks, and your answer goes into the list.
• For Screen & System Audio Recording, the app often has to be quit and opened again before it sees the change.
• In a browser, a site needs two permissions: the browser’s own in System Settings, and the site’s in the browser.

See every app permission at once

System Settings shows one list at a time, so it’s hard to tell what a single app has been given. MacWashing’s Privacy collects all the lists in one place. It needs Full Disk Access: macOS keeps permissions in a protected database.

1. Open MacWashing, click Privacy in the sidebar, then Show Permissions.

2. On the left are the same lists as in System Settings, with how many apps are in each. Click one, for example Camera, to see its apps and when each permission was last changed. Apps you deleted are marked App deleted.

Revoke an app’s access

1. Click Revoke next to the app and confirm. The app loses access right away and may ask for it again when it needs it.

• Some permissions can only be changed in System Settings: Location Services, Apple’s own apps and a few system permissions. They show Open in System Settings instead.
• Revoking Automation takes back the app’s control of every app in its list at once.