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While searching in a private window a red binocular icon appeared on the address bar. What is it?

Lacho
Lacho
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While I was searching in a private window I noticed an icon I'd never seen before. It was red and looked like binoculars or a camera. It was on the left end of the line with the web address, to the right of the purple privacy icon. I am worried that my pc is being viewed remotely. Can you tell me what this icon is and what it represents?

Any and all information you can provide is greatly appreciated. Thanks very much!

While I was searching in a private window I noticed an icon I'd never seen before. It was red and looked like binoculars or a camera. It was on the left end of the line with the web address, to the right of the purple privacy icon. I am worried that my pc is being viewed remotely. Can you tell me what this icon is and what it represents? Any and all information you can provide is greatly appreciated. Thanks very much!

All Replies (1)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Hmm, if you haven't updated your Flash plugin yet today, it could have been the plugin notification icon. That usually looks like a small gray Lego block, but when your plugin version is known to be vulnerable to security exploits, it turns red and has a white circle in the middle. If you want to test this theory, you can visit Adobe's "about" page here and see whether the same icon appears:

https://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

Adobe released an update today to resolve the critical issues it admitted were in the 18.0.0.203 version. You can get 18.0.0.209 on this page:

https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html

In the first table, look for the row for "plugin-based browsers" and you can use either the EXE or the MSI installer.

If it was some other icon, could you possibly capture a screen shot of it? This article has tips on that: How do I create a screenshot of my problem? Please cut or blur out any sensitive/confidential/personal information from the image before attaching it to a reply.