My mbp cam light started to be always on about a year ago, so I have a sticker over it. They cannot fix trivial things so it cannot be trusted.
I checked for malware; nothing; if it is malware, the scanner did not find it.
Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
431–440 of 990 posts
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#432A person I with used to work for the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment. Apparently their former employer’s preferred method of disabling the camera on a MacBook was to break the lens using a nail and hammer...
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#433Earlier quoted context omitted.
even then there probably should be some minimum "flash" time in that if it turns on and off faster than the LED lights up or human eyes can see then it may still take images faster than we can register? EDIT: a commenter below said "Macs newer than 4 or so years also have a feature that forces the LED to stay lit for at least 3 seconds after it has been turned on to prevent the single-frame-grab attack."
my laptop has a piece of tape over it, but i can still see the LED lit when it comes on. however, as far as the flash of a quick snap, does the camera on the MacBook take an image faster than the iDevices? the phones always take at least a second after pushing the button, so maybe Apple would be better off putting the same kind of camera in the laptop to ensure it is impossible to take a photo quickly
If an iPhone is displaying the current camera contents on the screen, the software already has access to the camera, and is already "taking photos" in real-time.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#434Earlier 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.
There's another angle, which is that even if the wiring works and forms an iron clad promise the camera is not working, not having camera covers trains the population to be okay with having cameras pointed at them all the time, even in their most personal and private spaces.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#435Earlier quoted context omitted.
A physical electrical on/off switch for the microphone (that actually interrupts the wires going to the mic).
Doesn't that require the same kind of trust in the correctness of the wiring that is at issue in some other comments? I can see that a camera cover works, but I think I couldn't see that a physical switch was actually interrupting the wiring without doing a teardown.
It takes one external party checking the wiring to make sure and it can't be patched by an update.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#436As an alternative to a camera cover, use the camera indicator light to determine if your camera is active
I've been thinking about privacy all wrong. I thought it was about preventing access to my data... but Apple has cleared up my misunderstanding and now I know that it's just about being notified when my data is stolen.
Everyone feel free to post your credit card numbers... your privacy is secure, since your bank will let you know in the form of a bill when it's accessed without your permission.
Thanks Apple!
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#437Earlier quoted context omitted.
On new Macs the light is a minimum 3 seconds even for a single frame photo. Anyone monitoring you has to turn the light in just to see if you are there, and what you are doing, and will likely have to watch for hours to catch any incriminating footage. You will have plenty of notice.
And what sort of hardware switch is it that guarantees the 3 second minimum?
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Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#438> "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…
>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…
I expect you are probably correct, but it doesn't really matter. If you don't want to be filmed, the correct engineering approach is not to have a camera pointed at you 24/7. It is a bit like the gun rule of not pointing a gun at things you don't want to shoot - sure, the trigger should be enough of a control, but accidents happen.
If you spend your entire life with a camera pointed at your face, your face (and activity) will be accidentality filmed by that camera sooner or later. Indicator or otherwise. The indicator light is a good idea but I'm still spiritually on the side of the tape people.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#439Earlier quoted context omitted.
See the several articles linked in this page about apple webcams/mics being turned on by hackers.... Apple is good, but they are not perfect
You’re posting this late enough to have had time to see that those are all about hardware which is a decade old. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23796606
Right, so as time progresses news comes out about said hardware being hacked. I think you've validated his point. 5 years from now we will see how today's cameras have been hacked.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#440Earlier quoted context omitted.
Frankly, by the time the indicator is noticed, it may be too late. Even with the LED wired in place and a 'feature' (capacitor or software?) forcing it to stay lit for 3 seconds, the damage may be done. It does, at least, let you know an attack occurred. I really think an LED is barking up the wrong tree. A built-in hardware cover would have the same effect as the LED, and no one would have to trust it, since the cam…
Ironically for Americans' wariness China, the "pop-up webcam" in Huawei laptops completely resolves the security and trust issue, by providing a physical way to disable the camera. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKY3hvYKPpA Too bad it mainly shows your nostrils :(
There are plenty of laptops with a built-in hardware cover for the camera.