I was very skeptical of the camera covers, but then through conversations with some of my co-workers, I realized that they weren't being used because people were worried about spies secretly turning on the camera. It was 90% of the time just peace of mind that their camera was actually off, instead of having to find the sometimes hard to see options in video chat programs etc.
With regard to privacy, the microphone is 100x more sensitive than the camera most of the time, and it’s much harder to secure.
> "Designed to protect your privacy, Mac notebooks have a camera indicator light to let you know when the camera is on. ... Published Date: July 02, 2020" Perhaps Apple missed these? 2013: iSeeYou: Disabling the MacBook Webcam Indicator LED https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/36569 2016: Your Mac’s Camera Can Be Hacked https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/your-macs-camera-ca... 2016: Former NSA emp…
Fud, these don’t work anymore.
Which ones do?
Which bugs, loopholes, backdoors, etc allow the camera to get through my cover (I upgraded to sliding plastic from electrical tape at the start of lockdown and there was a need for an actual camera)
Half of my office has camera covers, honestly at this point I'd have a lot of respect for any maker who had a physical mechanism to their camera... Sort of like the original iSight https://www.coolsmartphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/is...
I've never understood physical covers, then again I am never in a compromising position in front of my laptop. Any malware that can take pictures can record keystrokes. I want no cover so I can see the activity light because knowing the webcam is on is more important than it being on. The (pennsylvania?) school district webcam spying scandal got kicked off because a boy noticed his webcam light coming on. If it had b…
For me it's not about blackmail, it's about making sure the camera isn't accidentality enabled unexpectedly during a meeting.
The worst that would happen is I'd look kinda unprofessional slurping up some noodles, but having the camera covered allows me to be confident I'm not presenting unless I intend to.
> "Designed to protect your privacy, Mac notebooks have a camera indicator light to let you know when the camera is on. ... Published Date: July 02, 2020" Perhaps Apple missed these? 2013: iSeeYou: Disabling the MacBook Webcam Indicator LED https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/36569 2016: Your Mac’s Camera Can Be Hacked https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/your-macs-camera-ca... 2016: Former NSA emp…
Fud, these don’t work anymore.
Do you expect him to post links to zero day exploits? If it's actively targeted and done so consistently and sequentially, it is reasonable to expect that it _could_ be happening now.
> The camera is engineered so that it can’t activate without the camera indicator light also turning on. This is how you can tell if your camera is on. I'd assume this is done in firmware for the camera module?
Do camera modules need power? Could the LED be wired in series to the camera module voltage in wire?
I was very skeptical of the camera covers, but then through conversations with some of my co-workers, I realized that they weren't being used because people were worried about spies secretly turning on the camera. It was 90% of the time just peace of mind that their camera was actually off, instead of having to find the sometimes hard to see options in video chat programs etc.
With regard to privacy, the microphone is 100x more sensitive than the camera most of the time, and it’s much harder to secure.
It certainly is, I have the option to
1) Block the camera and hope the microphone is on mute
2) Hope the camera isn't on and home the microphone isn't on
3) Not have the mac at all
People are suggesting just using tape, but the issue is when you want to un-cover it frequently (which is probably more common now than a few months ago). For a couple dollars you can get a thin, nice-looking little plastic cover that you can actually slide out of the way when you need to use it. Most of these are thin enough not to be a problem, but they vary, and even the really thin ones usually don't quite let yo…
TBH the thing I’ve noticed is just how fast people stopped turning cameras on during Webex. Before the nearly everyone at my company what was WFH or was joining from their laptop rather than a video conferencing room had their camera on. Within like a week of the lockdown people stopped and I can imagine why you stopped dressing, stopped shaving heck I can hear bedsheets on some of the calls I attend. Pretty much now…
That might vary by team. My team/org still uses cameras a lot as it makes it easier to empathize and be empathized with. Especially if we're trying to be persuasive, a human face is easier to emotionally connect with than a voice.