331–340 of 990 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think cameras are generally expected in non-budget laptops just as they are in phones.
Unfortunately, they're not even as good as phone front cameras because laptop screens are so thin. So people who do a lot of video chatting typically set up an external webcam or even a real camera in video mode.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hi! I was the security architect for this feature on recent Macs. The LED is wired to the camera PMIC and is powered by the voltage rail that powers the camera. The PMIC will always remain on if the system has power. 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.
> to prevent the single-frame-grab attack. prevent? by the time the LED turns on, the attack has already happened.
Seriously Apple, just stop blaming your users. Camera covers are a totally reasonable response to the threats we all face. If your precious computers can't have them installed, build one in. I am a longtime Apple hardware user, but it's just getting so hard to keep using them...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
it was hacked in the past - that's the point of the above comment No guarantee it can't be hacked again.
There is a guarantee because there’s no way to bypass the wiring to the light to power the camera.
> 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...
It's not that simple, what voltage and current need to held on that wire to light the LED and the camera? It's not uncommmon to find a situation where a chip doesn't technically have the right power on it's power rails, but is instead drawing power on the input ports. It's non-trivial to prove this is or isn't happening.
> a chip doesn't technically have the right power on it's power rails, but is instead drawing power on the input ports.
What does this mean? The data lines of camera modules are generally differential pair, and it is highly unlikely that significant power is being drawn from them.
> "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…
If you read to the bottom of the directions it says you can use a sticker. So this looks like its targeted to the plastic camera covers that can be turned on and off.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Designed to protect your privacy, Mac notebooks have a camera indicator light to let you know when the camera is on. ... The main problem with that isn't that it is possible to disable the LED. The problem is that the LED is like a smoke detector, when it alerts you it's already too late, you are on fire (or your photo/video has already been taken). An indicator LED doesn't protect your privacy, it only tells you w…
...and it only tells you that if you are looking at it at the time.
How does the smart backlight can adjust luminosity without triggering the webcam's indicator then ? (genuenly curious, I don't know how it works)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As long as you maintain physical possession of your machine, point 3 is moot, at least on Macs.
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
After reading this help article by Apple I will sell all my Apple devices and never buy anything again from them. This post by Apple is confirmation to me that they were spying though the camera. In recent years I have seen more and more people do this with nearly every single Mac owner I know doing this (and that's a lot of people). I don't think it's Apple conducting the espionage but rather LEAs of totalitarian un…