One of my colleagues asked me to install TeamViewer so he can help me at work. Should I trust TeamViewer? I mean, will they be able to spy on me? Do I have full control of what they see of my computer and when?
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Unless someone from Teamviewer is willing to answer, we cannot know. This makes it opinion based which is off-topic here. – MiaoHatola Mar 27 '17 at 09:15
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I'd also like to know if they are able to install any programs like keyloggers without my permission? – dnnagy Mar 27 '17 at 09:16
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3The app is deployed as an installer and adds a service that runs in the context of SYSTEM. Does that answer your question ? – Stephane Mar 27 '17 at 12:48
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@Stephane It doesn't have to be like that. There is an flavor known as TeamViewerQS (QS = quick support) which works like a portable app. It's an exe file which you download and start. It will even work without any priviledges. So at least you can be (quite) sure that once you stopped and possibly deleted this executable again, you don't keep a permanent back door in your system. – TorstenS Sep 18 '17 at 10:01
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@TorstenS Additionally, on Linux you can simply start and stop the teamviewer daemon on demand (`teamviewer daemon [start|stop]`). – Marc.2377 Apr 04 '19 at 00:02
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We cannot know what Teamviewer does with your data but there are some security risks you should watch out for:
- Don't share your private details on a public screen. Some people use Teamviewer to get to screens that are placed far away or high up off the ground (advertising boards and etc) which are available to the public to see. If the Teamviewer details are displayed any user can login to that PC.
- After using it renew the private code or uninstall it if not needed anymore so no one can login with the same code again.
If you really do not trust it you can try other programs such as standard RDP.
You can also read a little more about the Teamviewer connection in this question.
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