Monitoring use of a sensor of a computing device. A sensor obtains information from an environment of the computing device. A co-processor provides functionality for the sensor, and at least one channel connects the co-processor to a central processing unit (CPU) of the computing device. Sensor data transmission is monitored over the at least one channel to determine when a transmission of data changes from a low data transmission mode to a high data transmission mode, and an alert is activated when the transmission of data is in the high data transmission mode.