Is Putting Tape Over Your Webcam Actually a Good Idea?:
When you walk around an office or café, you'll often see people using an array of items to cover up their webcam. Sometimes it's tape, post-it notes, folded business cards, stickers, their thumb, or a marlin. I smear peanut butter over my webcam, but chunky peanut butter. It's more secure than smooth.
None of those items came with the laptop upon purchase, and it's easy to make fun of putting something there as paranoid. The idea that someone wants to look through your particular webcam seems a bit narcissistic and on edge, as if we're leaving our house and saying to one in particular, "Please, no cameras."
But while it's absurd that people are putting tape over their webcams, it's doubly absurd that it's actually kind of a good idea.
[...] While we all know there are cameras everywhere, it seems somewhat natural to do what we can to prevent a few of them from looking at us. Even Mark Zuckerberg—the guy with more information on people than the Library of Congress—puts tape over his webcam.
[...] Feel free to feel silly when blocking your webcam, but be silly and safe. If your webcam is covered with a plate of osmium wrapped in blackout curtains and sealed with one of those tire clamps, I won't judge.
(Score: 2) by Ox0000 on Monday January 02, @01:08AM (15 children)
You don't go about ignoring Betteridge's Law of headlines [wikipedia.org] just willy-nilly, that's dangerous son!
The answer is "yes, yes it is a good idea!"
(Score: 4, Insightful) by aafcac on Monday January 02, @01:16AM (11 children)
Except that it is a good idea. There have been too many webcams that don't place the activity led in the power circuit for the camera, which means it can be on without lighting up. Not to mention that if the camera is taking stills, you might not notice it even if the light did come on.
It previously only takes a picture at the right time for nudes to appear online forever.
Really, these should have a physical switch that disconnects the power to the camera completely.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday January 02, @04:25AM (3 children)
Hear, hear!
The other benefit to a switch is that you can actually shut off a microphone that way.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Monday January 02, @07:10AM (2 children)
The main argument against the stickers would be that it doesn't do anything about the microphone. Which is probably less of an issue, but still possibly a problem. I personally don't understand why the LED wasn't in the power path for the camera in the first place as it's not very hard to do in terms of the circuitry and probably would have added precisely 0 cost to the design. as they've already got an LED and power to the camera. It seems a bit fantastic to me that nobody thought about what would happen if somebody either broke into the system or otherwise got malware on to take photos or videos at the point where these were becoming common.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Immerman on Monday January 02, @03:24PM (1 child)
Yeah, microphones don't have the "online nudes" concern, but it wasn't so long ago that people got seriously weirded out about the idea of criminals, creepers, and (especially) governments being able to listen in on their conversations at any time. And for good reason, it's incredibly dangerous on a whole lot of different levels.
And now we've normalized everyone always carrying around individually identified, always-online GPS tracking devices with sound and video pickups. I think maybe the time for worrying about laptop microphones has passed in favor of more pressing concerns.
The light is a nice idea, if it were impossible to bypass. But for some reason that's rarely the case, and a safety feature that can be silently disabled is in many ways worse than nothing. And it's still easy to overlook if only occasionally enabled for a moment to snap stills.
To hell with when they were becoming common - they've been common for a long time now, as have the creepier problems. Why is there *still* not a switch?
It's not like they're still using legacy hardware - that camera, along with every other part of the laptop, have been completely redesigned several times since the problem became obvious. And every time they chose not to solve it.
Frankly, given the simplicity of an unbypassable hardware switch and/or light, the paranoid part of me is tempted to blame on malice what cannot be adequately explained by stupidity. If it were just the cost, you'd think *some* models would break ranks.
(Score: 1) by BeaverCleaver on Wednesday January 04, @05:46AM
My Thinkpad has a little sliding cover that physically covers the lens.
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Monday January 02, @07:25AM
That must be a meaning of "except" that didn't occur to me. :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by darkfeline on Monday January 02, @08:57AM (3 children)
>Except that it is a good idea.
It's not though. If your machine is compromised, the webcam is the least of your problems. All of your accounts are also compromised, as well as the microphone which is generally privy to more sensitive information than the camera.
It's like a primary education teacher wearing a condom while he's teaching. It's *technically* safer if everything goes wrong, but there's already so much gone wrong by that point you'd be better off not getting to that point to begin with.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 3, Touché) by aafcac on Monday January 02, @02:43PM
I take it onions aren't something that comes to mind when security comes up. There are any number of reasons why you might not want the camera to come on unexpectedly from accidentally entering the wrong zoom room to hackers
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Monday January 02, @07:00PM (1 child)
WTF? You are currently the leader in the 2023 edition of the most mind-boggling analogy of the year contest.
(Score: 1) by aebonyne on Monday January 02, @08:19PM
It's a reference to xkcd 463: Voting Machines [xkcd.com].
Centralization breaks the internet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02, @11:06AM
Would be funny if the hackers caught some 2 Girls 1 Cup or goatse stuff...
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday January 03, @02:50AM
Can you trust that the switch actually works? I recall stories about physical switches that didn't actually do anything.
Methinks an opaque slider built into the case would be more to the point, and no need to trust anything you can't see.
Okay, the truly paranoid may consider that the slider might in fact be not so opaque, but that's pretty easy to test.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02, @01:20AM
Yep, a little rectangle of white paper taped over the camera is the first thing I do when setting up a new laptop. The paper means no tape glue can mess up the camera lens. I fold one end of the magic tape over (stuck to itself) to make a little "handle", so it's easy to lift if I ever want to use that camera.
I'm in Zoom and WebEx engineering meetings all the time, but it's rare for anyone to have their camera on. We do share desktops frequently to illustrate a point.
(Score: 4, Informative) by driverless on Monday January 02, @01:41AM (1 child)
Recognising that this is a great idea, some laptop manufacturers have physical shutters, that no software can mess with, in front of their webcams. Lenovo is one I know of, I'm sure others do to, although their visual signalling of open vs. closed is annoyingly confusing.
Beyond that, there's a ton of stick-on plastic shutters available from your favourite crapvendor that provide the same functionality.
(Score: 2) by sgleysti on Monday January 02, @05:10PM
Thank you for expanding my vocabulary.
(Score: 2) by progo on Monday January 02, @01:33AM (1 child)
I disable the device drivers for my on-board mic and camera on laptops. I have a USB webcam for when I need these functions. Good idea to cover the camera with something (but don't get glue on the lens), too.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Monday January 02, @07:15AM
Honestly, the thing to do is probably get one of those 3d printed covers where you can slide it out of the way when you do want to see things and then cover it back up. A bit of very thin double sided tape and you're done.
(Score: 5, Informative) by RamiK on Monday January 02, @01:58AM
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002409811315.html [aliexpress.com]
compiling...
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 02, @02:00AM
Most any brand of epoxy. You can even go with old-timey Bondo, automotive body repair.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02, @02:00AM
The rodents in your house will appreciate it too!
(Score: 5, Informative) by Revek on Monday January 02, @02:06AM (2 children)
We(my friends) played around with them early on and discovered several ways to use them and the mic without a user being aware. Even the ones with indicator lights could be turned on without the light.
This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
(Score: 4, Informative) by RS3 on Monday January 02, @03:23AM
You weren't the only ones who figured it out. Lest we all forget:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/2521075/pennsylvania-schools-spying-on-students-using-laptop-webcams--claims-lawsuit.html [computerworld.com]
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/feb/19/schools-spied-on-students-webcams [theguardian.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02, @02:52PM
No shit, Sherlock. Literally everyone knows that.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday January 02, @03:26AM
Put frosted tape over it. Two reasons:
- On cellphones, it lets the light sensor work properly, so your screen brightness won't be stuck on high
- On laptop, if you ever do need your camera for a video chat, the image will show as a blurry mess so you'll remember to uncover the camera, not completely black and misleading you into thinking the camera is faulty
And yes, in this day and age, having to tape over your own camera to avoid being watched by big data companies says a lot about how much control you have over your own computer - or at least how much confidence people have that the software they run works for the user and not for its corporate masters - and it says a lot about our elected officials who seem to think the situation is normal and acceptable.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02, @08:45AM (4 children)
I don't think that word means what you think it means.
https://www.choosingtherapy.com/narcissistic-personality-disorder/ [choosingtherapy.com]
Narcissists are overly focused on how they are seen, perceived, and treated by others.7 They rely on external attention, praise, and validation to feel special or important and can collapse, becoming defensive, reactive, and even destructive when they do not get external validation (their form of supply).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02, @02:54PM
And it's also a colloquialism for being self-centered, you boorish, internet pedant.
(Score: 2) by helel on Monday January 02, @04:34PM
Narcissistic [merriam-webster.com]: extremely self-centered with an exaggerated sense of self-importance
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by sgleysti on Monday January 02, @05:13PM
EGOTIST, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.
–Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
(Score: 1) by Coligny on Tuesday January 03, @05:57AM
Sounds like what a narcissist would say…
“Nobody would care about such an irrelevant person like you”
(Texto what my crackwh0re narcissist mother told me as a teen, few year later, i’m still ‘irrelevant’ but sysadmin servers that are better not compromises because someone snooped a password somewhere. Pretty sure that hoe still go through the narcissist prayer(*) wondering why i’ve been 20y n/c)
(*)
That didn't happen.
And if it did, it wasn't that bad.
And if it was, that's not a big deal.
And if it is, that's not my fault.
And if it was, I didn't mean it.
And if I did, you deserved it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ShovelOperator1 on Monday January 02, @09:38AM
When I bought my notebook, I did another thing: I just disconnected the wire that goes from mainboard to the webcam. When I really need a camera, I connect an external one, usually to dump clips and photos for processing.
Everyone with a brief technical background about how things work would not let the camera to be connected to the modern computer all time.
The thing is that the main narrative in the media about privacy is that if someone does nothing illegal, they have nothing to hide. So what's so illegal in the source code of drivers? In the firmware? Or in matrices of silicon? there must be something REALLY stinky in there. And we had a sample of it when a few months ago Russians and Ukrainians released faked photos of each other's military pasted in compromising situations, just like Americans did a few months earlier with activists from various conflicting protests.
So it's better to NOT have a photo in the Internet. Nobody knows in which photocollage it may end and how can you be blackmailed with it. Maybe you will become the pedophile, or maybe there will be a "photo" of you a bit too close to a cow (and it was shown by the prime minister in one of EU countries!), or maybe you will just storm the federal government's headquarters like in the USA?. And when you are in these pictures, the mob would not listen about origin - they will have their games, as there's someone to lynch, the truth does not matter.
Similarly, the voice can be captured, analyzed and used in a synthesizer to do e.g. fake bomb alarm phone calls. AFAIR there was such an incident in Poland made on political opponent, to frame him in fake alarms.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, linguistic stylometry is not so popular so typing is quite safe when it comes to fabricating compromising materials.
P.S. If someone really wants the image from camera in e.g. a surveill... err... "Virtual meeting", what I recommend is to frame such person into lookism. This works surprisingly well.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MrGuy on Monday January 02, @10:15PM
The very best web camera cover I’ve ever used is one I can’t find commercially, so I make myself.
Get black (color isn’t important - I use black so it hides better) sheet vinyl from Amazon. A long roll of several square feet (more than I’d need for several lifetimes of this hack) is a few bucks.
Then I cut rectangles about 3/4” by 2”. This is large enough to fit over my camera, big enough to handle without dropping, and for within the black bezel around the screen of my MacBook.
No adhesive. It just sticks with static electricity (like colorforms. Remember colorforms?). I move it out of the way when I want to use the camera, and it lives on the lens the rest of the time. Thin and squishy so can’t damage the case or the camera. Not 100% opaque but good enough to make it impossible to make out what’s happening. So ridiculously cheap so I cut dozens of spares. if I ever lose one I don’t miss it.