Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/03/13/keep-your-private-life-private.html
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damage your webcam if left on too long
please explain ^
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Think of the children!
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I think of children all day long.
Wait that doesn’t sound right.
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I’ve not seen it happen(at least in the cheap seats, the webcam lens is usually recessed below the bezel, so the tape never actually touches it); but a lot of flavors of tape come with adhesive that turns into ridiculously stubborn goo-crud sooner or later; and the usual chemicals for showing that stuff who is boss aren’t something I’d splash on electronics I care about; plastics I want to keep looking good; or optical/antireflective coatings I want to keep from disintegrating; so I can imagine cleanup being a real nuisance if you do have quality tape gunk.
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I use a post it note. Unfortunately, you can’t put one over your microphone and block it as easily.
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You took the words right out of my fingers !
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They look like they saw exactly what you were doing when you thought your webcam was covered
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Wait, is this an ad for crooked, janky tape?
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Do they have a cover that will block Obama from turning my microwave into a camera?
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I’ve honestly never understood this obsession.
I have a friend who works in a newspaper office, and everyone is supposed to put tape over their webcams. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if they’ve pwned your webcam and are secretly recording you, isn’t the webcam the least of your worries? Surely at that point they can also install a keylogger, and that’s much, much more dangerous.
I mean, what is a pwned webcam going to see in an office? Someone’s head, looking at the screen for eight hours. Maybe if you’re lucky the person will speak to a coworker (while still staring at the camera) and you can lip read, but… seriously?
I think that it’s just that we, as Humans, have a visceral reaction to someone looking at us, that this is the idea that creeps us out the most about spying. That the Russian hacker or the CIA will be staring at us through our webcams.
Why the hell do they care what weird faces you’re making while you’re typing?
I can see this if you’re a public figure who uses their laptop for… personal reasons, and you’d rather not be caught in flagrante delicto – red handed, as it were. Outside of that, just practice better web security for the things that actually do matter, and the things that don’t will thereby take care of themselves.
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People take laptops with them to meeting rooms where white boards and screens display information. Its also possible to have a whiteboard in your work space, or other sensitive stuff laying around.
Sure, mostly paranoia. But why not do it?
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Yes, we need to think of the children, especially if there are toddlers in the house, for whom these can form a significant hazard:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/cps-spc/pubs/cons/magnets_danger-aimant-eng.php
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black electrical tape. Blends seamlessly, easy to remove. Not understanding why $15 for something that a) can be seen b) is a different color c) seems like depending on the laptop it could cause problems with shutting.
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If it’s a very targeted attack, by someone who can use actionable intelligence from your whiteboard, then maybe.
In this case, that implies, what? CNN hacking NBC laptops to see what stories they’re discussing in the meeting? And paying some intern to monitor hours of video data in the hopes that the laptop passes by some useful whiteboard?
Your typical hacker is still far, far more interest in your keystroke data. And if the CIA is watching you, they still aren’t you know, watching you. They don’t care about your face.
I still think this is just playing to the ick factor of people feeling like they’re being watched, and so playing to a paranoia that actually doesn’t make any sense – and worse, makes people feel safer when they aren’t. People, who for the most part rely on sight, have the gut instinct that the video camera is the “window” into their lives, but that’s just wrong.
Are there any actual cases of anyone being hacked, and having the video data be useful to the hackers, except for pervs?
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It’s not tape. Tape is bad. This, on the other hand is a specialized sticky thin polymer on a plastic medium meant to promote adherence between two different materials. Totally not tape.
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I’d tap that.
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And utilizes magnetism…since there are no laptops or tablets on the market that don’t use magnets to determine if a cover or screen is open.
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I didn’t even think of that. Not to mention this will probably scratch the shit out of your finish, especially if you have a metal laptop body.
Tape isn’t sounding so bad right now.
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Degaussing FTW!
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