Why does Parallels Desktop 19 activate the FaceTime camera and Microphone when loading a VM?

I have Micro Snitch by Objective Development installed on my MacBook. Much like a similar, free product by Objective-See, it monitors and logs activations of hardware recording devices, including the onboard FaceTime camera, microphone, iPhone camera, iPhone 'Desk View' camera, and iPhone microphone. After upgrading to Parallels Desktop 19, I noticed that each time I began a VM, Micro Snitch would report activations of the FaceTime camera and onboard microphone. At first, I thought that might be a clever security mechanism to protect the integrity of your VMs. Then, however, I began wondering about the following:

1. If it's a security feature, that must mean it's actually taking photos of the person activating the VM from the hardware device. Where are these photos stored?

2. I can't find any setting to deactivate this feature, and haven't find anything about it in the Parallels Desktop 19 documentation.

3. And finally, why the microphone?

It's worth noting that I am running macOS Sonoma 14.2, which is in public beta. So, it may not be an activation at all. macOS may actually be treating the handoff of the camera and microphone from macOS to the VM as an activation, even though there has been no actual activation. It may be that Parallels does not know this is going on.

Is this a feature or is it a bug with how macOS 14.2 handles the hand off of control over the camera and microphone to the VMs? Where can I find documentation?

 

There's a new option Configure -> Hardware -> Sound & Camera.

It annoyingly selects "Share Mac camera" by default even when there is no camera which then gives an error message when the VM starts. I had to update the setting for all my VMs.