Privacy Dots

Script that displays the status of your microphone, camera, location and screen sharing with colored dots along with which apps are using them.

Capabilities

• Microphone Status: Shows a green dot when any microphone is in use.
• Camera Status: Shows an orange dot when any camera is active.
• Location Status: Shows a blue dot when location services are in use.
• Screen Status: Shows a purple dot when screen sharing is active.
• Easy to Customize: Add new statuses or change colors easily. The functionality is handled by a simple Bash script, and styling is managed with CSS.

Defaults

The backend script polls status information every 3 seconds by default. It provides formatted text, tooltips, and styling classes, which you can use with any bar to display.

Dependencies

1. pipewire
2. v4l2loopback-dkms
3. jq
4. dbus

Installation for Waybar

1. Download the script and place it into your scripts folder: privacy_dots.sh

2. Add this module to your waybar config:

{
    "custom/privacydots": {
        "exec": "/path/to/script/privacy_dots.sh",
        "return-type": "json",
        "interval": 3,
        "format": "{text}",
        "tooltip": true,
        "escape": false,
        "markup": "pango"
    }
}

3. Add this module style to ~/.config/waybar/style.css (optional):

#custom-privacydots {
  padding: 0 10px;
  font-size: 12px;
  letter-spacing: 3px;
}

Notes

• This fork improves the original script by adding an actually working location usage tracker and rewriting the camera tracker, which can now be triggered even by a virtual webcam.

• As I use Waybar, guide for it is the only one that's present.

• I don't have a laptop on which I can test this script and I'm forced to rely on using my phone as camera to test the camera tracker and /usr/lib/geoclue-2.0/demos/agent as a geolocation trigger. I can not guarantee that it fully works with the actual hardware modules.

• All indicators tested and proved to be working with OBS, gpu-screen-recorder, Discord and Telegram. Screen sharing indicator does not work when sharing a specific tab in the web version of Discord in the same browser.

TODO

(PRs are more than welcome btw)

• Add more installation guides for different bars
• Add which apps use those features to the tooltip
• Add an indicator if screen is being recorded/shared