Shoulder surfing (computer security)

Shoulder surfing is when someone looks at your computer or phone screen without your permission. Just like when you show a friend a picture on your phone and they look at all your other pictures, shoulder surfers can look at private information like your passwords, bank account numbers, and emails.

It's important to protect our screens from shoulder surfers by sitting or standing in a way that blocks other people's view or setting up privacy screens to make it hard for people to see what's on our screens. We also need to be careful of who we give our devices to and who might be looking over our shoulder when we're using our devices in public places.