That answer it simple: HARDWARE SWITCHES. My ThinkPad already has physical camera shutter door. All I need now is physical mic on/off switch.
You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may listen when mic is off
271–280 of 353 posts
Re: You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may listen when mic is off
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
MacBook pros already have a mute-speaker button. It would be so nice to have a mute-mic button which lights up when muted.
Ironically this is a good use case for a Touch Bar: a button on your keyboard that is only there _sometimes_ because it’s only needed in certain contexts (when you’re on a call)
It might be but not really.
I carefully made sure I didn't mention the touch bar. I waited until 2022 to finally be able to buy a MBP without a touchbar (and with magsafe charger).
I would very much like a physical button with a reassuring tactile feeling to it. Like the mute button on the function keys row.
Re: You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may listen when mic is off
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
Makes claims impossible to falsify, without naming names nobody can poke holes in your analysis.
Or, you know, keeps your ass safe from being sued...
Anybody can sue you at any time for any reason.
For libel and slander cases though, telling the truth is a valid defense.
Re: You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may listen when mic is off
#274I feel like they're trying to make an insidious suggestion about the usage of these. IMO, there's likely a good reason - user experience. At a hardware level, grabbing the microphone can take time. Even worse that timing is inconsistent across devices, workloads, etc. That leads to a bad experience when unmuting and needing to delay your commentary. The solution to this is to keep the microphone on, but mute at a sof…
Or how about an OS-level software mute? Like you have for muting the speaker.
Re: You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may listen when mic is off
#275I feel like they're trying to make an insidious suggestion about the usage of these. IMO, there's likely a good reason - user experience. At a hardware level, grabbing the microphone can take time. Even worse that timing is inconsistent across devices, workloads, etc. That leads to a bad experience when unmuting and needing to delay your commentary. The solution to this is to keep the microphone on, but mute at a sof…
At the hardware level, it takes 0 time (10's of microseconds at most for I2C connected codecs, maybe a millisecond for USB 2.0 sound card) to mute the mic input channel to the mixer sitting before the A/D converter.
If it takes any more than 0 time, it's caused by badly written software.
I wouldn't blame the HW for the privacy issues, here.
Re: You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may listen when mic is off
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm not sure why they don't say which one Yeah, that's very annoying. Zoom, for example, will tell you, when you are muted and you begin to speak. It's a very nice thing. I have a microphone (that wasn't expensive) that has a hardware mute. I use it when I really want to make sure I'm not heard, even for "speaking" detection.
MacBook pros already have a mute-speaker button. It would be so nice to have a mute-mic button which lights up when muted.
For that you need an actual pro laptop like a lenovo which has mute button and led for Mic
Re: You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may listen when mic is off
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
"They found that all of the apps they tested occasionally gather raw audio data while mute is activated, with one popular app gathering information and delivering data to its server at the same rate regardless of whether the microphone is muted or not." The way I read that is, only one of the apps actually sends audio data to the server when the mic is muted. I'm not sure why they don't say which one, and I'm not sur…
In their actual paper[1] they identify it as Webex. [1] https://wiscprivacy.com/papers/vca_mute.pdf
Webex will by default listen for ultrasound emitted by some video conferencing devices for easy stop. If you disable this, does that change the results?
Re: You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may listen when mic is off
#278I highly recommend a basic XLR interface/mic combo. These connect via usb and along with improved sound quality give physical volume and mute buttons. Internal mics can then usually be disconnected from the motherboard if comfortable working inside a computer. It shouldn't cost more than $100-200 to get started. Why trust an open mic any more than an open webcam?
Yep! I have an older Steinberg UR22; quality is awesome. Mine doesn't have mute buttons, but with my Streamdeck I can mute/unmute the input sources very easily.
Re: You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may listen when mic is off
#279I make it a habit to utilize dial-in numbers for conference software and disable mic inputs on my computer for this reason. There’s no guarantee that my phone doesn’t listen in while I’m muted, but I feel like it’s a better choice. There is a bit of audio quality loss, but on the flip side it isn’t as much of a battle over bandwidth while streaming video, sharing my screen, and broadcasting on audio.
Re: You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may listen when mic is off
#280Fixed for BBB with 2.2.4 but it still consumes upload bandwidth comparable to a recording open microphone.
https://github.com/bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton/releases/tag/...