Your screen is being observed

[msvadi]

A message "Your screen is being observed" with the screen sharing icon suddenly appeared today on my Mac out of nowhere. It also said something like the screen is being accessed by an unknown device. I immediately disabled screen sharing, file sharing, and remote login, and the screen sharing icon went away.

I'm wondering if there can be any legitimate reasons for this. I was actually on a Zoom call and sharing my screen through Zoom, but I don't think that's supposed to activate the screen sharing icon in the menu bar.

 

[econut]

A message "Your screen is being observed" with the screen sharing icon suddenly appeared today on my Mac out of nowhere. It also said something like the screen is being accessed by an unknown device. I immediately disabled screen sharing, file sharing, and remote login, and the screen sharing icon went away.

I'm wondering if there can be any legitimate reasons for this. I was actually on a Zoom call and sharing my screen through Zoom, but I don't think that's supposed to activate the screen sharing icon in the menu bar.

Don't know if was the same cause, but the "Your screen is being observed" just came up on my computer without the other things you saw, & it turned out I had mistakenly hit "record" instead of just snapping, when trying to get a screenshot. It apparently stays on record till you turn it off. (I have no idea where the recording "goes"...)

 

[mac1984]

Same message will appear if someone has connected via Remote Desktop.

 

[Javi74]

Yesterday I had a similar problem, 3 days ago I set up Google Remote Desktop in my MBA-M1, and yesterday I got the message "you are being accessed" you get when you really connect to the computer using this system.
I uninstalled Google Chrome and Google Remote Desktop, run CleanmyMac and Bitdefender to look for any vulnerability, and haven't find anything. I don't know what to do. I think the best option is reinstall the OS, but this is my first MB and I have no idea of how to do it.

 

[msvadi]

Yesterday I had a similar problem, 3 days ago I set up Google Remote Desktop in my MBA-M1, and yesterday I got the message "you are being accessed" you get when you really connect to the computer using this system.
I uninstalled Google Chrome and Google Remote Desktop, run CleanmyMac and Bitdefender to look for any vulnerability, and haven't find anything. I don't know what to do. I think the best option is reinstall the OS, but this is my first MB and I have no idea of how to do it.

Almost two months passed with no issues. I believe it was not a hack and the message appeared because of my local sharing permissions or Zoom or Remote Desktop with my work computer. I have not seen any reports of such hacks. Still, it would be a good idea to change your passwords.