Device Census uses webcam – what is it?

Users of a number of antivirus programs (Kaspersky Total Security, ESET and similar) may encounter a regularly pop-up message “Device Census is using a webcam” or “Access to the webcam is blocked.” At the same time, the webcam indicator light does not show itself in any way, which causes the user to have many puzzled questions. What is this “Device Census is using a webcam”, under what conditions does this message appear, and how to get rid of it? We will tell you all about this in our material.

Background of the question

As you know, modern technologies are, first of all, a business aimed at achieving profitability and a high profit margin. In the context of digital technologies, segmentation and targeting are necessary to make a profit. Also, studying the potential client base, its tastes and preferences, in order to offer it a digital product that best suits its needs.

Microsoft, the creator of the Windows line, has built into Windows 10 a multitude of telemetry tools that constantly study user actions and send this information to Microsoft. All this is covered by the slogan of “maintaining the stability of the operating system.” Behind which lies banal market marketing, allowing them to study their current (potential) client around the clock.

So, after activating Windows 10 OS and launching the webcam, this OS sends 35 megabytes of encrypted data to the following Microsoft servers:

• ca.telemetry.microsoft.com
• oca.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
• vortex-sandbox.data.microsoft.com
• i1.services.social.microsoft.com
• i1.services.social.microsoft.com.nsatc.net

During its further work, the system sends data from the webcam to Microsoft servers at long but regular intervals. However, disabling Windows 10 telemetry tools does not give a 100% result. And if there is access to the Internet, the system still regularly transmits encrypted data from the user’s PC to the ssw.live.com server.

What does “Device Census is using webcam” mean?

One of Microsoft’s telemetry tools is the executable program “Device Census”. Microsoft classifies this product as a safe system process running in the background of the Windows OS and is an important component of the Windows Telemetry Framework. The purpose of “Device Census” is to collect data about the user’s use of the webcam and related components, with the purpose of further anonymously sending the data to Microsoft.

At the same time, Microsoft guarantees that it does not record the transmitted data, but only checks how often the user uses their webcam, in order to optimize the operation of future versions of the Windows OS and get rid of bugs.

Since the data sent is encrypted by Microsoft, it is quite difficult to understand what exactly is being sent to the company’s servers and whether the information sent is harmful to the PC owner. Therefore, we recommend disabling Device Census using the method described below.

How to Disable Device Census

Now that we know what Device Census is, let’s figure out how to turn off Device Census on your PC. To do this, you need to:

1. Click on the “Start” button, select “Windows OS Settings”;
2. In the menu that opens, click on “Privacy”;
3. Click on “Camera” on the left;
4. Under “Choose which apps can use your camera,” disable (toggle to “Off”) the permission for the Feedback Hub app.

   Disable webcam access for Feedback Hub

You can also, as a radical measure, prohibit all applications from accessing the camera. To do this, on the above settings page, deactivate the function “Allow applications to use the camera”.

But, as we have seen before, disabling Telemetry tools does not save the user from collecting information about him using Windows OS tools. Therefore, we recommend not to neglect outright spy tools. And cover the webcam window and microphone hole of your laptop with a piece of black adhesive tape. This will partially protect you from unauthorized collection of information about you. This is a joke, of course, but as they say, the truth is somewhere nearby. And ideally, use Linux and there will be no such problems.

Conclusion

Above we have discussed the reasons for the message that Device Census has started using the webcam, as well as the purposes for which the Device Census product is intended and how to disable it. We recommend that you deactivate this program, which will partially free you from digital surveillance by Microsoft and unknown persons.