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Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

techcrunch.com

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Re: Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

#101

Post by vonmoltke »

9dl wrote: post #91
dylan604 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you concerned if someone else does/doesn't do something? You can only control your own actions. Not protecting yourself by covering your webcam because the majority of others do not is not sound logic. I have a bright pink piece of tape over mine, and it is always a conversation starter. I have seen later that many people do wind up covering their webcam. It's not a 100% conversion rate, but it is definitely…

Why someone want defend corporations? Especially those which breaking law What motivations of such people?

Who here is defending "corporations" (by which I assume you mean corporate bad behavior)? Do you think Facebook and their ilk are the only actors who might want to hijack the cameras on your devices?

Re: Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

#103

Post by vonmoltke »

9dl wrote: post #74
pc86 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an intentional misreading of the parent comment and does not belong on this forum. Zuck being a high value target for extortion/exploitation/attack is an objective fact. Saying so doesn't imply that anyone else is "low value" - attackers will attack whoever and whatever they can to achieve their goal, which is almost always money.

If it is misleading then first priority of fb is defending privacy and user data at all costs. Everyone, not just one person Nice

Other than not using them themselves (which, just to be clear, they absolutely should not be doing), how is Facebook supposed to protect everyone from remote camera takeovers?

Re: Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

#104

Post by semiotagonal »

ic4l wrote: post #48
have_faith wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because he's much more likely to be targeted than any of us for things like that?

Not sure who downvoted you. But I agree 100% with this, he is a high value target.

I feel like a high value target to me, though. If the environment is untrustworthy enough for Zuckerberg to defend himself against it, he should consider his own role in making it that way.

Re: Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

#105

Post by josephv »

pc86 wrote: post #68
vonmoltke wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do it. My wife does it. My sister does it. The cameras at Bloomberg all had shutters, and I used it there as well. It's just good (paranoid?) OPSEC to defend against remote takeover exploits.

How does tape over a camera prevent remote takeover specifically?

Physical controls can be as effective as technical.

Re: Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

#107

Post by dehrmann »

ProAm wrote: post #102
phkahler wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can look at the code to see what it's actually doing.

People rarely look at the code even when its open source

Not only that, even if you have reproducible builds, they're a lot harder to verify on mobile targets where you can't just compare all the installed files.

Re: Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

#108

Post by HeadsUpHigh »

imchillyb wrote: post #79
nealdt wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also nice reminder about that lovely photo of Zuck with a sticker covering up his webcam. Now why would he do something like that ... ?

Those persons stupid enough to leave a webcam uncovered when not in use deserve the consequences of their actions. Those who leave a microphone operational when not in use also deserve the consequences of their actions. Stupid people reap stupid rewards.

Do you realize that every microphone I have is basically embedded in the devices? I can't turn off -temporarily- my laptop's microphone or my phone's.

Re: Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

#109

Post by eindiran »

lalos wrote: post #106

It's very telling when the CEO of the company puts stickers on his cameras. Bug or not, I guess it's better to follow suit with those that know what's going on. https://simplecapacity.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Mark-Z...

Putting stickers over your cameras might be a reasonable thing to do, but it's pretty silly to pretend your threat model is the same as Mark Zuckerberg's.

Re: Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

#110

Post by HeadsUpHigh »

dylan604 wrote: post #93

i'm no fan of FB, and do not have their apps installed. however, the rationale is that they initialize the camera so there is little delay when the user actually wants to use the camera, but the skeptics think the camera being initiated has a more nefarious purpose. scientific method would suggest these are testable theories to prove/disprove. could we not test the network traffic to see if a sudden spike in outbound…

No idea mate but what I've noticed is that when I had the facebook app installed it used to completely trash my battery on every android device I tried it on while running in the background. Imo there must be some kind of processing that they are doing locally.
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