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Is My MacBook Pro Always Listening?

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Re: Is My MacBook Pro Always Listening?

#51

Post by dedward »

Karunamon wrote: post #46
derekorgan wrote: post #18

Are you suggesting that my mac book pro is sending this data to some apple server somewhere? Can you imagine A the traffic that would take and B the amount of useless information that would be recorded. They have millions of computers! If its not being recorded locally or sent to an external source from a privacy point of view there is no problem. Both of these would be easy to detect by looking for sound files somew…

No, rather that "Hmm, this is odd, it seems there is no way to disable the mic " I didn't read any allegations of remote recording here. Perhaps you clicked on another article by mistake?

still drinking my coffee, but the one odd part was that, on theprefs screen, with mic input all theway down, it was still regisrering audio. something is wrong there....all other arguments about security aside,

i tried this on my mid 2009 mbp, and dont get the same results... turing volume input all the way down should result in muted audio input. nevermind havkers... what if i just want it off for a sec while i say something i dont want someone to hear (mute buttons aside.... and are they working filly if rekying on the same api)

suggest trying on multiple units... and as others have said, those guidelines are just best practices, not guarantees. if you want guarantees, you dont have conversations near microphones... and sweep theroom for transmitters, assuming thats still possible. one would assume some agency with an unfathomable budget could probable fevelop some kind of ultra liw power ulta wideband bug we are nor goingto detect. or it will just record and theywill tell it to transmit later. or just pick it up... thelist goes on,

theoriginal question is valid though, i would like to know that, absentmalicious intent, when my mic is muted its muted, and inthe samevein, that the camera light is an absolute indicator of activity.

when i get around to buying a new mac (or something) which shoukd besoon, ill be doing someexploratory surgery n this one i think.

Re: Is My MacBook Pro Always Listening?

#52

Post by dedward »

ddagradi wrote: post #31
mchanson wrote: post #22

This article is without merit. The author's logic train derails shortly after leaving the station. Without removing the hardware there is no way to prevent someone with remote root access from recording audio from any input regardless of settings. This is true of any machine that has audio inputs and drivers loaded for those devices.

He even gets basic facts incorrect. The author assumes his Macbook Pro doesn't have a dedicated audio input. It does. Every Macbook Pro does. (The Macbook Air is the only Mac shipping without a built-in audio input). Really, what I see is a software update that fixes a user interface bug. System Preferences no longer offers disconnected audio inputs as a selectable option, because it's just plain smarter that way. Co…

so despiteall that, when you are using the prefs screen and turn the input volume theway cown, it should not register any input right? Thenwhy does it? thas not nothing.

Re: Is My MacBook Pro Always Listening?

#53

Post by bbloomberg »

mickael1 wrote: post #49
ddagradi wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He even gets basic facts incorrect. The author assumes his Macbook Pro doesn't have a dedicated audio input. It does. Every Macbook Pro does. (The Macbook Air is the only Mac shipping without a built-in audio input). Really, what I see is a software update that fixes a user interface bug. System Preferences no longer offers disconnected audio inputs as a selectable option, because it's just plain smarter that way. Co…

The 13 inch Macbook Pro, just like the Air, does not have a dedicated audio input. It's one of those mobile phone headphone/microphone combo jacks.

Hold down option and click the volume icon in the menu bar, select "Use Audio Port for: Input"

Re: Is My MacBook Pro Always Listening?

#54

Post by ugh »

wladimir wrote: post #19
user24 wrote: post #7

I'll tell you what else seems to always be listening - the camera on the MacBook Pro, even when the little green light is off. Cover the camera with your finger or shine a flashlight/mobile phone screen into it, watch the keyboard lights react. It's obviously listening for light level changes. I just wonder how much data you could collect from the sensor without the green light turning on? edit: I'm wrong, see my rep…

Right -- I'm not sure about the MacBook, but in many cases the webcam led is software-directed, not hardware-directed. So a small change to the driver (or firmware) can make it record without enabling the led.

In Macs it’s directly wired to the camera. If the camera receives power the LED also receives power.

Re: Is My MacBook Pro Always Listening?

#55

Post by sequoia »

ridruejo wrote: post #41
jrockway wrote: post #29

If you are really worried about this, I recommend surgery. I used to have this Windows box at work that would always make sounds for no reason, even though the sound was muted. The solution was to open it up and physically disconnect the speaker. Never made a sound again. If you don't want your computer to be used as a listening device, first try adjusting your tinfoil hat. If you're still worried, open it up and rem…

Well, the article reminds me of the "Webcam" short film. It is not so much about covert NSA agents taking over your computer as targeted malware... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i841CamEX3o

Amazing; I wonder how the webcam allowed him entry to the building and her apartment (which of course could not have happened without the webcam). I'm as tinfoily as the next guy, I have my webcam covered with a post-it, and I think the issue is serious and people should be more aware, but this video makes alarmist, overreaching leaps to conclude "use a webcam -> get raped" which is precisely what the video suggests.

Re: Is My MacBook Pro Always Listening?

#56

Post by waqf »

finnw wrote: post #36
jrockway wrote: post #29

If you are really worried about this, I recommend surgery. I used to have this Windows box at work that would always make sounds for no reason, even though the sound was muted. The solution was to open it up and physically disconnect the speaker. Never made a sound again. If you don't want your computer to be used as a listening device, first try adjusting your tinfoil hat. If you're still worried, open it up and rem…

> There. Now you just have to worry about the bugs the Agents put all over your house. Physical bugs are expensive. Malware is cheap.

Particularly in terms of cost to deploy.

Re: Is My MacBook Pro Always Listening?

#57

Post by bradleyland »

unwind wrote: post #38
bradleyland wrote: post #35

Changing your sound configuration is useless against anyone who has obtained admin rights on your operating system. Windows, Linux, Mac, or otherwise. If they have root/admin, they can override any setting you change at the most basic levels. If you're still OCD and concerned about it, install Soundflower [1] and you can easily configure Soundflower as your default input, but not feed anything on to the Soundflower b…

I understood is as the stub was plugged into the input to avoid having the input automatically ignored due to not having a device connected. I don't know (no experience) if Macs' analog ports were this clever, but considering the hardware to detect presence in the port is trivial, it wouldn't surprise me so that's how I interpreted it.

I've seen a lot of Windows hardware drivers that do this. They detect when you've plugged a device in to an audio port and change the config to accommodate. OS X doesn't do this. If you configure Line In as the default input, the OS will monitor that port, regardless of its state. The only adjustment OS X makes is to remember input volumes based on plug state. So for example, if you plug in a set of headphones, the volume will be adjusted to the level that was set when headphones were last plugged in. When you unplug, the volume level is reverted to the state it was in prior to plugging in headphones.

Re: Is My MacBook Pro Always Listening?

#58

Post by joshzayin »

jamii wrote: post #33
mchanson wrote: post #22

This article is without merit. The author's logic train derails shortly after leaving the station. Without removing the hardware there is no way to prevent someone with remote root access from recording audio from any input regardless of settings. This is true of any machine that has audio inputs and drivers loaded for those devices.

A nice intermediate step is to attach a small light directly to the mic/camera, so that the light is on whenever they are being used.

They already do this for the camera, though I'm not sure if it's hardware or software.
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