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Block your phone camera to protect your privacy with this quick guide
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Did you know you can prevent cybercriminals from seeing you or accessing your phone's camera when you're not using it? The easiest way to do this is to physically cover your camera, but you can also disable or block the camera in your phone’s settings to turn it off. Here's how to cover the camera on an iPhone, Android, or another phone.
Things You Should Know
- Black electrical tape, duct tape, or stickers are perfect for covering the camera on a cell phone.
- If you don't want adhesive on your phone, you can use a case with a built-in camera cover slider.
- Disable camera usage in your phone's settings to prevent third-party access.
Steps
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Use a piece of electrical tape to cover the camera for a simple option. Peel off a small piece of electrical tape and trim it to size using scissors. Put one small piece of tape over the front camera and a slightly bigger piece of tape over the back camera. This is more than enough to hide your lens from a hacker trying to get into your camera.
- The downside of electrical tape is that it will leave a sticky residue behind when you peel it off of the phone. It also isn’t as attractive as other solutions.
- The camera on the front is typically around 0.25 inches (0.64 cm) in diameter. The camera on the back is a little bigger—usually around 0.5–1 in (1.3–2.5 cm) in diameter depending on your phone. Cut pieces to size accordingly based on your specific phone’s camera.
- Standard translucent tape may cloud the image from your camera, but it won’t completely hide it.
- You can use duct tape if you prefer, but the adhesive on duct tape is much stronger than electrical tape. You’ll have a bunch of gunk left on your phone if you ever decide to take it off.
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Choose a sticker to add a fun design while covering the camera. A sticker will perform the same function as a piece of electrical tape without looking out of place. You can purchase a set of small stickers online or pick up a set of stickers from a craft store. You can also find small stickers to cover your phone in a children’s sticker book. Find 2 stickers that you like and put one on the front camera and one on the back.
- Flowers, logos, symbols, and smiley faces will all give your phone a little personality while covering the camera.
- So long as the sticker is big enough to cover the lens, the sticker will work. For the front camera, basically any sticker can cover it. For the camera on the back, you’ll need a sticker that is at least 1 by 1 inch (2.5 by 2.5 cm), although it may need to be bigger depending on your specific phone.
- Stickers will hold just as well as electrical tape, but they will also leave a residue behind if you ever take them off.
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Get an adhesive camera cover for a more seamless option. These are basically thin adhesive strips that can be stuck on and peeled off of a phone camera without leaving any residue behind. Once you get your camera cover, peel the adhesive off of the back and stick it over your camera.
- These camera covers usually come in sheets with different sizes of covers. Use whichever sizes will cover your lenses entirely.
- You can get these camera covers in a solid color or with a small design on them.
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Buy a slide cover that obscures the camera to hide it when you want. Camera slide covers are small tabs with one open side and a lid that slides over the opening. They’re designed for laptops, but they can work on phones as well. To install it, simply stick the open side over your lens. Then, whenever you want to cover the lens, move the small slide over the opening.
- Unfortunately, this is not an ideal solution for the camera on the back of the phone. Combine this solution with an additional method to cover both lenses.
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Use a case with a built-in slide cover to hide your camera when you want. Buy a protective case with a built-in slide cover online or at a phone accessory store. Insert your phone into your case and use the tab on the top or side of the case to hide your camera. These cases are a great option if you want a cleaner way to cover the camera.
Tip: These cases are easy to find for iPhones. For Androids, these cases may be kind of difficult to find since the cameras are different for every case. For less popular Android models, there may not be slide cover cases for your phone.
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Tips
- Using something to physically cover the cameras and disabling or blocking the camera at the same time is the safest way to ensure that your camera doesn’t turn on when you aren’t using it.Thanks
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