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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

#31

Post by slipheen »

gtm1260 wrote: post #20

I was very skeptical of the camera covers, but then through conversations with some of my co-workers, I realized that they weren't being used because people were worried about spies secretly turning on the camera. It was 90% of the time just peace of mind that their camera was actually off, instead of having to find the sometimes hard to see options in video chat programs etc.

That's exactly it for me -

I'm in a lot of remote meetings, and wouldn't want to be accidentality presenting without expecting to.

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

#32

Post by electrotype »

toxik wrote: post #26
miles wrote: post #23

> "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…

Fud, these don’t work anymore.

these

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

#33

Post by ehavener »

oskenso wrote: post #18

> The camera is engineered so that it can’t activate without the camera indicator light also turning on. This is how you can tell if your camera is on. I'd assume this is done in firmware for the camera module?

I'm guessing the light is part of the camera's power circuit. I don't think this would work for photos, though.

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

#34

Post by dguo »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #4

When I moved to Germany I was surprised how everyone taped the camera on their laptops with these small, thin, easy to remove stickers that left no residue made for bookmarking your notebooks. This should still work on Macs as a sticker is thin enough not to damage the display.

That's what I use as well, and I'm still using the same one that I started with. It's lasted over a year.

I appreciate this line:

> The camera is engineered so that it can’t activate without the camera indicator light also turning on. This is how you can tell if your camera is on.

But I still want a physical assurance that the camera can't see anything. I don't want to have to count on myself noticing the light.

Some Lenovo ThinkPads have built-in shutters, and I wish Apple would do the same for MacBooks. In my ideal laptop, it would also physically disable the microphone.

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

#35

Post by noja »

etaioinshrdlu wrote: post #15

> The camera is engineered so that it can’t activate without the camera indicator light also turning on. Has anyone torn down the hardware and verified this lately? It should not be a complicated feature at all. Just ensure you have the same voltage applied to your LED circuit as your camera circuit, and enforce that by having them on the same wire...

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.

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

#36

Post by dogma1138 »

_bxg1 wrote: 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 the cameras are useless.

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

#37

Post by OrangeKnucles »

toxik wrote: post #26
miles wrote: post #23

> "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…

Fud, these don’t work anymore.

Something new will come that will work.

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

#38

Post by zdragnar »

toxik wrote: post #26
miles wrote: post #23

> "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…

Fud, these don’t work anymore.

The fact that they worked at all is an indication that something similar may work in the future. It's not like apple has never had a regression in software.

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

#40

Post by ziddoap »

toxik wrote: post #26
miles wrote: post #23

> "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…

Fud, these don’t work anymore.

Not to presume what the OP was meaning, but I'm guessing they were pointing to these cases as a "it has been vulnerable before, it may be vulnerable again. But a cover is not exploitable in this way" rather than "these exploits work".
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