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Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

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Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#81
post #65
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is sort of the definition of having your customers cater to you instead of you catering to your customers.

So you're catering to Siemens when you refrain from putting your dog in the microwave?

What are you trying to say? All I get from this is boot-licking absurdity.

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#82
post #14

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…

We had specific guidance to not have cameras on because of the bandwidth load on the VPN. For cost reasons, they've also turned off access from the 800 number to dial in to meetings.

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#83
It's so interesting that we've arrived in a state where people, for good reason, cannot trust "their" devices in the slightest. On the computer where you do all your online banking or taxes or whatever, you don't feel safe without sticking something over the camera.

Makes me very proud to support Purism laptops with their camera/microphone hardware killswitches and FOSS software (I know FOSS is not the same as secure, but at least incentives are aligned). On desktop I use FOSS software and physically plug in a webcam for meetings.

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#85
post #65
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is sort of the definition of having your customers cater to you instead of you catering to your customers.

So you're catering to Siemens when you refrain from putting your dog in the microwave?

What a ridiculously hyperbolic reply.

But no, this analogy does not follow, because your microwave will still work after you put your dog in there -- and I have not seen guidance from Siemens telling me that microwaving my dog voids my microwaves warranty.

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#86
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait: that's not the same as having a camera cover. A camera cover guarantees that the camera can only work when the camera is uncovered. A camera light alerts you once the camera is already on .

Yeah, light can turn on when one is looking away from the computer or sleeping and could potentially be spied on. A cover is a non spying guarantee, at least the visual part, spies can listen on the mic though

A software fridge light!

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#87

This is an interesting side effect of designing a thin, fancy glass display! I see a lot of people who cover their camera and I appreciate their concerns but I do trust the green light. Although... You may not see the light on if you leave your laptop open when you're away from your desk. I do wish it was easier to get a laptop with no camera or microphone at all!

Can you be confident that the light stays on long enough when taking a quick snapshot?

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#88

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...

My hp laptop (I guess it's an elitebook) also has this small integrated shutter. Very practical.

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>2013: iSeeYou: Disabling the MacBook Webcam Indicator LED https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/36569 ... applies only to older Mac notebooks from like 2008 period which are long since obsolete according to Apple's announced support policy. >2016: Your Mac’s Camera Can Be Hacked https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/your-macs-camera-ca... . ... refers specifically the exploit above. >2016: Former NSA…

The problem is in the design: by not providing a hardware switch, all we have is trust. As we can see from the past, unfortunatly it's not enough.

I had a laptop with a physical switch for WiFi/Bluetooth in 2006 or so (with a matching orange/blue light that would turn up when you toggled it). The problem was that this was actually all done by a software driver - when I booted into Linux with the laptop I was surprised to find that the bluetooth/wifi modules were on regardless of the switch's position.

At the end of the day, unless you have a really nice microscope, solid understanding of electrical engineering, and a few tens of thousands of hours ahead of you, you have to trust whoever you're buying the hardware from that it will do what they say it will. No amount of hardware efforts can solve the fundamental human trust problem.

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Does that happen often? We've been 100% Microsoft Teams since March so I'd say that in several hundred calls and conferences since then I've never activated the webcam without intent.

Software is hard to use and randomly changes every time a stupid designer decides to shuffle the UI for no reason. So yes it happens.
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