91–100 of 307 posts
If you're so concerned about having your webcam subverted, it seems like the first step would be to insist on a hardware LED that can't be subverted in firmware. If nothing else, it would serve as a canary, indicating that your machine has been thoroughly compromised.
https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a black laptop. I put a tiny piece of black electrical tape over it. I do lots of calls, but I've never seen a good reason to use video except perhaps with one's SO.
GitLab is a remote only company with 100+ team members. Most of my calls are with video, the nonverbal language adds to the conversation for me. It's not 90% but I prefer video to audio if possible.
From all they ways I can be spied, the webcam is the one that concerns me the least. At the end, all they will see is a bearded man staring to the front. May they be able to see me naked? Well, probably, but I honestly don't think that they will make a lot of money by selling my naked pictures... My wife tells me that I still look good, but I suspect that she is being nice to me. What would scare more is that they ma…
This, unless you are going to open up every device around you and physically isolate all audio recording equipment, I fail to see how covering your webcam is much more than security theatre?
From all they ways I can be spied, the webcam is the one that concerns me the least. At the end, all they will see is a bearded man staring to the front. May they be able to see me naked? Well, probably, but I honestly don't think that they will make a lot of money by selling my naked pictures... My wife tells me that I still look good, but I suspect that she is being nice to me. What would scare more is that they ma…
This, unless you are going to open up every device around you and physically isolate all audio recording equipment, I fail to see how covering your webcam is much more than security theatre?
I have never covered my Webcam because I trust the light to come on if the camera turns on. Is it possible to bypass that led?
This is what I find ridiculous. Is there any real value in NOT hardwiring the camera power to the LED? Consumers should demand that the camera light not be under software control and that it always reflect the true power state of the camera. Something similar should be done with the microphone. There is no excuse for a situation where I have to put tape on my camera.
And yet, we happen to live in a world where practically no customer has the needed expertise to verify for themselves if the LED reflects the true state of the camera or not, and if they had it they'd not care any less. A world where corporations misuse technology to betray customer's confidence and break the law, and when those get caught, get away with no more than a slap in the hand (as in the VW emission control hack case).
So, what are you going to do about it? Throw a tantrum because you exist in Earth instead of Heaven, or work out a solution that you can implement yourself without need of consensus from the ignorant masses or permission from their corrupt leadership?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would you be concerned about the FBI or the NSA knowing about the content of your digital communiques if you have nothing to hide? Even the most ardent supporter of personal freedoms will admit that the government observing you over a network is the same as taking pictures of you with a telephoto lens on a busy street. The truth is the same: there are too many people and you aren't special enough to deserve perso…
> there are too many people Oh please. They can probably harvest the lot. It'll be some algorithm that deems you worthy or otherwise or gets you on an "of interest" list. Let's keep "personal surveillance" for '50s spy movies and Banksy murals. More generally, what about the chilling effect on legal and legitimate conversation?
...or your association with "Occupy" or some other political protest movement that someone in power disagrees with, or that your wife bullied some politician's wife for two weeks in school, or that your interfering neighbour with a petty dislike of how you landscape your garden works as a government clerk and can access your data.
There are many reasons why some individual might want to know private things about some other individual. When individuals with some tiny (or vast) power want to wield it over anyone else, especially when they can do it with little oversight, it's very tempting.
That "the government" has access to my private information does not mean it's blind and faceless. It's made up of people with complex motivations.
I know this thread will probably get politicized, but I see nothing wrong (or necessarily hypocritical; he's law enforcement, not IC) with his advice here.
It's not a bad thing to do, it's just hypocritical of him to value his own privacy but tell everyone else they need to give up theirs and let the FBI and NSA have access to everything they want to keep private.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This wouldn't work for me, as I store all my passwords on a Post-It note attached to my forehead.
Written backwards so you can read it in the mirror, right? They wouldn't be able to read it, since they get a non-mirrored image.