111–120 of 323 posts
This really isn't any worse than the other invasions of privacy that have been revealed – but it's much easier to point at it as an egregious and visceral violation of privacy. Even though webcam stills may be the least important (or useful) spying the US and UK have been doing, this may be some of the best fodder for arguments to limit such activities. So thank you, UK, for being so dumb.
Think how many Yahoo Chat users are under 18. Now think how many candid photos of those minors were taken and stored by this government agency.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh wow. That's a good point. And my MacBook lights an LED when my webcam's active, but it doesn't for the microphone. Perhaps it should?
The LED light on the webcam is bypass-able. On many cheap laptops it is controlled in software (at the kernel level), but even on Macs where it is meant to be hardware enforced it can be bypassed: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/12/18... Disabling the camera LED is a fairly standard feature in malware suites. Even a lot of USB webcams control the LED from software. The LED is just a feel-good f…
This really isn't any worse than the other invasions of privacy that have been revealed – but it's much easier to point at it as an egregious and visceral violation of privacy. Even though webcam stills may be the least important (or useful) spying the US and UK have been doing, this may be some of the best fodder for arguments to limit such activities. So thank you, UK, for being so dumb.
Just a thought here....these stories get tons of coverage here on HN (and rightly so), but at this point pretty much fall on deaf ears for the rest of our population. Our media is too busy keeping everyone distracted with stories about how a Coke Ad offended 0.000002% of the population and Russia's leaders hate gay people. Nothing against the importance or validity of those stories, but I would hope everyone reading…
Addressing that problem...I'm not sure what can be done to get others more engaged and feeling like they have a voice. I highly doubt any Senators or Congressmen are reading HN News on a regular basis...
Potentially GCHQ could be sat on one of the largest private collections of indecent images of people underage. The age range is liable to be 14-50, the article says around 7% were of people doing naughty things on camera, even if that tails off at the age extremes that's still a worrying thought. Keeping a creepy eye on your junk, just in case you're a terrorist.
I'll email the met and tip them off right now. Lets see how evenly we enforce the law in this country.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, because for political purposes, a compromising photo has far better blackmail value than other data.
But you can't use that blackmail tool without revealing that you were spying illegally. Revealing that would be worse for the blackmailer than the blackmailee.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that's a horrible analogy. And yes, there always will, but I think that homosexuality as a taboo has been exploited, specifically.
The analogy is pointing out that homosexuality is not a taboo because it's been exploited, it's being exploited because it's a taboo. Your original statement seemed to suggest that it is still a taboo because those who wish to exploit it want it that way. The cause is not power brokers, it's everyone (or enough of everyone) who makes taboos' shamefulness persist.
I felt that while both can be weapons, there is a concrete, perhaps subtle difference between the two.
This is from people actively webchatting, but in general, for passive collection, I'm a lot more worried about my microphone than my camera. Even without tape over the lens, my laptop usually just sees my face or a blank wall, or a closed cover. It's not like I have my webcam aimed and lighted at my bed or shower or whatever, and in general, the level of compromising information from text or audio would be higher (su…
What we need are hardware switches which physically disconnect power and data from the camera and microphone.