It's not a well known fact (or not to me) that a web site can use Macromedia's Flash Player to listen and watch through your microphone and webcam. A reader writes: "No doubt this has useful applications, but I find this amazing, especially since this feature does not seem to have been publicised. The web page here gives more details."
The Web page is also interesting because it lets you see the Flash sites you have visited and set the privacy settings for the player on your own PC.
There's also a Macromedia help page, Can others use my webcam to spy on me?, so the idea has come up before.
My immediate reaction is that anyone who attaches a microphone and webcam does so precisely in order to transmit sounds and images, so that's not a problem. The only problem would arise if the Flash Player could be hacked to do it without your knowledge. However, as the reader points out, that could be done by someone with physical access to your PC.
Who'd know?
So, what do you think? Is this something you wish you'd known about before, or is it simply not worth worrying about?
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