Computer spying is all the rage only 10 years into the 21st century. Not only do Mac users have app monitors and keystroke recorders, there are apps that can take your photo or take a screenshot at set intervals.
With the proliferation of Mac apps to spy on users and monitor their behavior, have we become overly concerned with security and less concerned about privacy? Here’s yet another app to monitor you and your Mac.
How May I Spy On You, Today?
Let me count the ways. And the ways and means and methods to monitor what goes on inside and outside a Mac are on the increase.
The latest is MonitorMyMac—an app that takes timed screenshots and iSight webcam images on a Mac.
You might think that Mac360 is on a spy crusade, or an effort to introduce Mac monitoring to the masses. We’re not, but there has been a notable increase in such apps, which indicates the market is growing.
Our Natalia Nowak has touched on a number of apps that monitor Mac usage, including More Mac Spy Tools: Capture Every Keystroke, and How To Secretly Monitor Employees Or Family Members On Their Macs.
Jeffrey Mincey found apps to secure your files in How To Encrypt Mac Files And Fight Paranoia. What’s happening? Fear and paranoia? Or, just good old fashioned pragmatism?
Regardless, MonitorMyMac joins a growing list of apps which monitor Macs—in this case using screen snapshots and iSight snapshots to record Mac usage.
Simple Is As Simple Does
MonitorMyMac may be the simplest of the video monitoring apps. It works behind the scenes, hidden from most users, to capture screen snapshots (everything on the Mac’s screen) which can be uploaded to a remote server, or saved as images in a QuickTime movie slideshow.
The same thing takes place with the iSight camera snap shots.
Images can be archived locally or remotely, captured in different image sizes and quality, and even viewed remotely (using MobileMe)—all while the current Mac user is completely unaware of the captures.
MonitorMyMac can be launched from a connected USB disk drive, and comes with plenty of options which easily will satisfy the most paranoid of Mac users—parents, teaches, or bosses.
Screen snapshots and camera snapshots can be set up on a timed interval, and even uploaded to a MobileMe account for remote viewing. Of course, not all such monitoring or spying carries negative implications.
MonitorMyMac can be a good way to check on pets or children or act as a security cam while you’re away from home or office. It’s yet another way to use our Macs for good or evil.
About Ron McElfresh
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