Not just Apple. I have Lenovo yoga. Put a sliding cover. Now I have cracked display cover though led panel is ok. Don’t do it folks
Just don't masturbate in front of your laptop.
Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
621–630 of 990 posts
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#622I put a piece of Scotch tape and blacken the area just around the “pupil” with a permanent marker.
This way, I can still see the indicator light.
You could use something like acrylic paint if you are extra cautious/paranoid.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#623Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you know? And how do you know there is not a bug in the electrical design?
How do we know there isn’t a secret spy camera hidden somewhere else in the laptop? How do we know Apple didn’t hide spy nabobots in their products that spread all over our houses watching everything we do?
"Hey man, even if you're sure your gun isn't loaded you still shouldn't point it at people. Can never be too careful".
"YeAh but wHaT if tHerEs a sNipEr alReaDy PoiNted aT yOu??".
Makes most sense to secure the camera that you already know exists and is looking right after you. Then you can spend energy on other things.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#624It's only .o2 incheas!
LOL. Needs to be zero.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#625Is this in response to FlexGate?
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/05/08/flexgate-class-action-l...
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#626Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hardwired or not, it doesn't mean the LED can't be disabled by malware: https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/36569
The “versions of MacBook laptops and iMac desktops” they are referring to are the ones from more that 8 years ago that didn’t have the hard wired LED. Nowadays there is literally a wire from the sensor to the LED. If the sensor is on, the LED is on. It’s got nothing to do with firmware.
What happens to the connection if the LED burns out? Is the LED lifetime sensitive to state change such that you could flicker it via rapid camera toggling to burn duty cycle overnight?
If someone had access briefly to your laptop at a coffee shop, could they cover the LED with black opaque cellophane?
This sort of attack is pretty specific, so you figure it’s only done by people who want something from you in particular. These sorts of physical prep steps are what I’d be looking at if someone were relying on the light. Hypothetically, I’d attack the light first then take advantage of the false assurance.
Missing or open cover is a little harder to miss.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#627Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed, I'm a little surprised Apple didn't follow the Thinkpad approach of simply having a sliding piece with an aperture that extremely obviously blocks the camera. Surely Apple can't seriously think their users would be confused by this and complain... I don't think my desktop computer's webcam is likely to get hacked either but I'm still going to unplug it when I'm not using it. Complex systems are hard to secure…
There are a number of ways to do it, other than a sliding latch, in case Apple wants to avoid adding thickness to the screen. 1. Electrically blurred glass. 2. Polarizing filters 3. Power kill switch, in hardware. But I guess Applw will balk at this too.
A peace of plastic in front of the camera is really simple to understand and trust - the rest you need to know about tech and trust someone did it correctly.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#628Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unless the LED somehow gets disabled, stops working, or something like it. It's not like the tape is ineffective, so why does Apple care if people use it?
Apple hardwired the LED to the camera. It can't be disabled.
Nothing stops a malicious actor for waiting for no activity on the machine before flicking the camera on, taking a picture, and then turning it off.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School...
Students were particularly troubled by the momentary flickering of their
webcams' green activation lights, which several students reported would
periodically turn on when the camera was not in use, signaling that the
webcam had been turned on.[9][23][25][48] Student Katerina Perech
recalled: "It was just really creepy."
After the suit was brought, the school district, of which the two high
schools are part, revealed that it had secretly taken more than 66,000
images.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#629Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple hardwired the LED to the camera. It can't be disabled.
How do you know? And how do you know there is not a bug in the electrical design?
The circuitry can't be that complex. Meaning the likelihood of a bug being pretty low. I mean come on, it's a wire attached to the camera power source with a resistor and a LED.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#630Earlier quoted context omitted.
The original iSight camera had a leaf shutter. It's not a foreign concept to them.
The original iSight had a hundred times more depth and also happened to be an external camera. Bringing it up here is irrelevant.
It's not irrelevant, it's information that allows any reasonable person to conclude that Apple implemented a solution before and has since decided to exchange that simple and effective failsafe for a marginally thinner product. I can't physically control whether I have a naked camera pointed at me all day but hey, at least my laptop can fit into a manilla envelope, right? Right? Totally worth it.