Cross-posted to: https://sh.itjust.works/post/15859195
From other conversations that I’ve read through, people usually say “Yes, because it’s easy on Windows”, or “Yes, because they simply don’t trust the webcam”. But neither of these arguments are enough for me. The former I feel is irrelevent when one is talking about Linux, and the latter is just doing something for the sake of doing it which is not exactly a rational argument.
Specifically for Linux (although, I suppose this partially also depends on the distro, and, of course, vulnerabilites in whatever software that you might be using), how vulnerable is the device to having its webcam exploited? If you trust the software that you have running on your computer, and you utilize firewalls (application layer, network layer, etc.), you should be resistant to such types of exploits, no? A parallel question would also be: How vulnerable is a Linux device if you don’t take extra precautions like firewalls.
If this is the case, what makes Windows so much more vulnerable?
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If you are running zoom, teams, skype or similar software, cover it.
just buy a little stick-on privacy slider. They’re like 3 for $10
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these sliders are very thin, but not thin enough. neither of my laptops close correctly with one equipped. :(
Ah well. Masking tape suffices.
yeah for my macbook, i use gaffer’s tape.
It’s a hardware issue not a software issue. If your laptop can run its webcam and not have the light turn on then it’s bad hardware. Software might get around one exploit, but that doesn’t fix what’s a hardware issue.
The device is vulnerable. The webcam is one way that gets exploited.
If it makes you feel safer, cover the camera when you’re not using it. I can’t comprehend why a person wouldn’t cover it up when it’s not in use. It takes one second.
Stay patched up.
Wash your cyber hands, use good quality, cyber soap, cyber shower regularly 👌
It’s really cool how a lot of Laptops nowadays (including mine) have a feature built-in that covers and disables the webcam with a button press. I can have it disabled most of the time and when I need it, I just press the button to enable it.
I do, for three reasons:
- Hackers. It’s unlikely that anyone would hack my webcam, but there’s always a chance. Maybe I’m paranoid, idk.
- Hardware exploits. Three of my laptops are too old for me to update the firmware with
fwupd, so I cover the webcams in case there’s some critical hardware-level vulnerability which could be exploited; or in case one of the three-letter agencies are in there. - Consequences. Despite the incredibly low chances of anything happening whatsoever, the possible consequences are too bad for me to want to risk it.
I’m paranoid, aren’t I…
And for me: 4. It makes it a lot harder to accidently turn my camera on in meetings (a different form of privacy)
Also, it’s incredibly low effort to cover it. There’s no subscription plan for covering a webcam.
Honestly, I don’t think anyone can actually say 100% for sure that your webcam can’t be accessed. We don’t know what we don’t know—new exploits are discovered every day—thus it’s worth the extra 2 seconds to cover and uncover it.
I dont think the covering of webcams with tape on windows is necessarily about a malware or an exploit watching you, but more about windows itself monitoring and selling off everything you do.
If I’m not using my cam, it’s not plugged in. If I am not chatting, my headset’s physical button has the mic deactivated. That’s two potential vulnerabilities I just don’t have to think about.
Doesn’t Pegasus spy on you from the hardware?
No. It’s necessary
Especially if you own a smartphone. You’re carrying 4x+ cameras and a wiretap with you at all times.
I thought about this one day when I was in the bathroom and used autorotate with face detection. I practically had the camera facing towards my crotch while it was on.
There’s this youtuber that goes around and films people in public, its funny because people get mad but most people in cities are already being filmed hundreds of times a day.
The message is the same, if you are worried about X vector you should really think about YZ first for it to make sense.
If you trust this source, it turns out that it is pretty easy to see your camera feed even if your camera is off: https://techxplore.com/news/2024-02-camera-hackers-spy-cameras-walls.html
I read about it on lemmy, too. I guess I – or one of us – should have cross posted it here from its .world source: https://lemmy.world/post/12081766
Edit to add excerpts:
Results vary on how far away someone would have to be in order to eavesdrop on these different devices. For some, a peeping Tom would have to be less than 1 foot away; for others, they could be as far away as 16 feet.
For consumers, Fu says a plastic lens cover might not be guaranteed to protect you—infrared signals can still get through them––but it is a good first step to battling this kind of cyberthreat.
This question really begs the point that cam and mic need kill switches that physically disconnect these things with a simple switch.
One of you go make a wall mounted light switch thing with a red LED for Workstations and sell it – I could see this becoming standard.
Laptop world is going to take more inroads from slacker hackers scratching their own itch.
I never really understood the obsession to cover cameras. While yes you don’t want someone to hack it and yes I do cover mine. What are they going to do? Watch you fap? I really don’t care. I personally am much more concerned with the mic. I would hate for someone to record me saying something well not so pleasant. You can use your imagination. I rarely see people mention the mic. I see it mentioned a few times here but not much. I much rather have a kill switch for my mic.
Well? We’re waiting for the first lemmy fap video. Go on, OP.
Cool, then respond to this post with a video of you masturbating. It would be helpful to the scenario to include your full birth name, address, and employer, since that is the scenario that folks who would be blackmailed would be facing.
Since you really don’t care.
It is possible that you mean what you say, but I believe its more likely you lack imagination to what impact the above scenario would actually feel like once you’re in it.
That silly proposition aside, I agree with you about the microphone killswitch. Certainly overlooked.
So sending a video of you fapping to your employer and family isn’t a problem? It still wouldn’t be a problem if you were a teenager or a young adult at the beginning of their career?
That’s a rather self-centered statement, imo. Just because you may not be bothered by the idea, does not mean that it does not have merit for others. That line of thinking is in a similar vein to saying “We don’t need freedom of speech because I have nothing to say.”.
Just put a tape with thick black paper or plastic cutout.
