{"id":6360,"date":"2018-07-27T10:35:42","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T05:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=6360"},"modified":"2023-07-31T18:53:57","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T13:23:57","slug":"device-census-using-webcam-telemetry-kaspersky-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/device-census-using-webcam-telemetry-kaspersky-warning\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Device Census and Why is It Using My Webcam?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When your anti-virus program shows the message &#8220;Device Census is using your webcam&#8221; or &#8220;Webcam Access Blocked&#8221; (referencing DeviceCensus.exe), you are be worried if some malware has infected your system. For example, <a href=\"https:\/\/support.kaspersky.com\/13295?cid=KTS_18.0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kaspersky Total Security<\/a>, ESET or any other anti-virus program you&#8217;ve installed may warn you about some program trying to access your webcam.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6368\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/devicecensus-using-webcam.png\" alt=\"kaspersky device census webcam warning\" width=\"687\" height=\"163\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This post tells you what <strong>Device Census<\/strong>\u00a0is and how to get rid of the message.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>What is Device Census (DeviceCensus.exe)<\/h2>\n<p>First of all, there should be no worries, as <strong>DeviceCensus.exe<\/strong> is a <strong>legit Microsoft executable<\/strong> present in Windows 10 computers.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6366\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6366\" style=\"width: 969px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6366\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/devicecensus-file-report.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"979\" height=\"720\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6366\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/whitelisting.kaspersky.com\/advisor#search\/83569b603bc56c0f16fbd0ff2b63c179\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kaspersky Application Advisor<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Windows 10 contains a Telemetry service that reports back to Microsoft on hardware usage, errors, etc. Device Census (background process) is part of that Telemetry Framework, and the process is only gathering data on your usage of your webcam.\u00a0Quoting Microsoft Support Engineer Jason [MSFT] <a href=\"https:\/\/answers.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/forum\/windows_10-performance\/what-is-device-census\/6f0b9f58-86b6-4e36-8fc8-4701218b49b6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/answers.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/forum\/windows_10-performance\/what-is-device-census\/6f0b9f58-86b6-4e36-8fc8-4701218b49b6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Microsoft Community<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/answers.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/forum\/windows_10-performance\/what-is-device-census\/6f0b9f58-86b6-4e36-8fc8-4701218b49b6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a0&#8211; &#8220;What is Device Census?&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In order to target builds to your machine, we need to know a few important things:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; OS type (home, pro, enterprise, etc.)<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; region<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; language<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; x86 or x64<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; selected Insider ring<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; (etc)<\/p>\n<p>This is the background process that runs to check your machine and tell us which build we should send to you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Device Census, in a nutshell:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Device Census&#8221; is a telemetry process from Microsoft.<\/li>\n<li>This will analyze the use of the webcam and other components.<\/li>\n<li>The data will be transmitted to Microsoft.<\/li>\n<li>The data transfer happens anonymously.<\/li>\n<li>No recordings are made. It only checks how often the devices are used.<\/li>\n<li>The collected data should help Microsoft to optimize Windows for future versions and to fix bugs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Stop Device Census Scheduled Task<\/h2>\n<p>Windows 10 runs devicecensus.exe via two scheduled tasks located under the following branch in Task Scheduler:<\/p>\n<pre>Task Scheduler Library \u2192 Microsoft \u2192 Windows \u2192 Device Information<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-19313\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/devicecensus-scheduler.png\" alt=\"device census device and device information scheduled tasks\" width=\"700\" height=\"190\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The tasks are named <code>Device<\/code> and <code>Device User.<\/code>\u00a0The task named <code>Device<\/code> is scheduled to run once daily, and <code>Device User<\/code> is scheduled to run once during user login. They run the commands <code>devicecensus.exe SystemCxt<\/code> and <code>devicecensus.exe UserCxt<\/code>, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Some users have had success disabling the above tasks to stop <code>devicecensus.exe<\/code> from running automatically.<\/p>\n<p><em>(However, as Microsoft says devicecensus.exe collects telemetry data which is useful in targetting builds your computer, disabling the tasks or blocking devicecensus.exe using a firewall outbound rule is not officially recommended.)<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Block Device Census Access to your Webcam<\/h2>\n<p>If you want to restrict this access to your webcam, use the Settings dialog in Windows 10.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Click Start, Settings (or press <kbd>WinKey<\/kbd> + <kbd>i<\/kbd>)<\/li>\n<li>Click &#8220;Privacy&#8221; and then click &#8220;Camera&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>In &#8221; Choose which apps can access your camera,&#8221; disable &#8220;Feedback Hub.&#8221;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6367\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/camera-feedback-hub-disable.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"495\" height=\"172\" \/><br \/>\nDisabling the setting will stop telemetry from accessing or gathering data on your webcam usage.\u00a0See also: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/control-apps-access-webcam-windows-10\/\">Prevent Specific Apps from Using the Camera in Windows 10<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Stopping DeviceCensus.exe with an outbound firewall rule<\/h2>\n<p>Another way to stop <code>devicecensus.exe<\/code> from transferring telemetry data is by creating an outbound rule using the <strong>Windows Firewall with Advanced Security<\/strong> (<code>wf.msc<\/code>) snap-in.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-19314\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/devicecensus-block-firewall.png\" alt=\"devicecensus.exe block using firewall outbound rule\" width=\"433\" height=\"581\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-19315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/devicecensus-block-firewall-2.png\" alt=\"devicecensus.exe block using firewall outbound rule\" width=\"776\" height=\"86\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/devicecensus-block-firewall-2.png 776w, https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/devicecensus-block-firewall-2-768x85.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re still worried about some third-party app accessing your camera, you can stick black tape over the camera.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If doing this you might consider cutting a small piece of tape that is only just big enough to cover the camera lens and sticking that (sticky-side to sticky-side) onto a larger length of tape which you will stick over the camera lens. This would stop the adhesive actually going onto the camera lens (and the little camera-in-use light that is beside it \u2013 you don\u2019t want to damage the lens in case, later on, you want to use the camera or sell the computer.<\/p>\n<p>Remember that when deciding on the length of the larger piece of tape there may be two other little holes either side of it (e.g. on HP Laptops like mine) which are the internal microphones. You may or may not want to cover these depending on whether you use the microphones (or are worried about remote access to them by eavesdroppers). If you decide to cover them you may want to protect them with another small piece of PVC tape as described above. ~David (&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/answers.microsoft.com\/en-us\/profile\/e14a936f-6a25-444e-a1f7-58d4101e3b20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">safe-david<\/a>&#8221; on Microsoft forums.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/icotip.gif\" alt=\"tips bulb icon\" width=\"34\" height=\"34\" \/>To see which program is currently accessing your camera, check out the article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/webcam-which-program-using-device\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Find Which Program is Using Your Webcam.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When your anti-virus program shows the message &#8220;Device Census is using your webcam&#8221; or &#8220;Webcam Access Blocked&#8221; (referencing DeviceCensus.exe), you are be worried if some malware has infected your system. For example, Kaspersky Total Security, ESET or any other anti-virus program you&#8217;ve installed may warn you about some program trying to access your webcam. This &#8230; <a title=\"What is Device Census and Why is It Using My Webcam?\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/device-census-using-webcam-telemetry-kaspersky-warning\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about What is Device Census and Why is It Using My Webcam?\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[191],"class_list":["post-6360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows-10","tag-error-messages"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4716,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/webcam-which-program-using-device\/","url_meta":{"origin":6360,"position":0},"title":"Find Which Program is Using Your Webcam Currently","author":"Ramesh","date":"December 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Does your webcam indicator LED get turned on automatically without you doing anything? Are you're worried if you're being spied upon by some malware? Or, are you seeing the error \"Your webcam is currently being used by another application\" when using Skype or other messaging application? The built-in Camera app\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Utilities&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Utilities","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/utilities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/camera-reserved-by-another-app.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/camera-reserved-by-another-app.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/camera-reserved-by-another-app.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5545,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/cannot-find-camera-error-c00dabe0-a00f4244\/","url_meta":{"origin":6360,"position":1},"title":"Error &#8220;Cannot find your camera&#8221; 0xC00DABE0 or 0xA00F4244 in Windows 10","author":"Ramesh","date":"October 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"If your webcam or Camera app in Windows 10 won't open and you get an error message saying that we can't find or can't start your camera (including error codes 0xA00F4244 or 0x200F4244), the cause might be antivirus software that's blocking the webcam or camera, or it could be an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"0xC00DABE0 0xa00f4244 cannot find camera ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/cant-find-camera-a00f4244.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/cant-find-camera-a00f4244.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/cant-find-camera-a00f4244.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/cant-find-camera-a00f4244.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4760,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/control-apps-access-webcam-windows-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":6360,"position":2},"title":"Control which apps can access your webcam in Windows 10","author":"Ramesh","date":"December 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Webcams have become essential stuff these days. Having a camera as part of your system lets you make Skype video calls, take pictures, etc. But with a number of modern apps installed in the system, the user needs to be in control as to which apps are allowed to access\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"control webcam access apps","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/webcam-app-allow-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/webcam-app-allow-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/webcam-app-allow-2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/webcam-app-allow-2.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3868,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/webcam-anniversary-update-windows-10-yuys-standard\/","url_meta":{"origin":6360,"position":3},"title":"Fix Webcam Issues in Windows 10 by Disabling Frame Server Mode","author":"Ramesh","date":"August 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A technological change made in Windows 10 Anniversary Update caused a problem where webcams failed to work, and the respective software (like Logitech, Skype) simply hung up within minutes of use. This problem was first perceived as a bug in the Anniversary Update, but it appears to be an intentional\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1065,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/fix-dvd-play-error-windows-cannot-access-the-specified-device-windows-7\/","url_meta":{"origin":6360,"position":4},"title":"Error &#8220;Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file&#8221; When Playing DVD Movies","author":"Ramesh","date":"July 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"When you insert a DVD media in the drive, right-click on the drive and choose Play from the context menu, the following error may occur. Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item. However, you may be able\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 7&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 7","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-7\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9422,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/windows-10-feature-update-error-0xc1900101\/","url_meta":{"origin":6360,"position":5},"title":"Error 0xC1900101 Installing Windows 10 Feature Update","author":"Ramesh","date":"May 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"When you install a Windows 10 feature update (eg., v1809 on a computer running v1803) via Windows Update, the error 0xC1900101 occurs and the installation fails. Error 0xC1900101 is a rollback code that indicates that an incompatible driver is present on the computer. Microsoft stated in its blog post that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"0xc1900101 windows 10 1809","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/0xc1900101-error.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/0xc1900101-error.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/0xc1900101-error.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/0xc1900101-error.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}