Covering your laptop camera: would you do it?

I would have thought this would be a bit too paranoid but I just read this New York Times article -
Mark Zuckerberg Covers His Laptop Camera. You Should Consider It, Too. - from yesterday talking about that tweet on the picture of Mark Zukerberg next to his laptop, observing that he had the camera and microphone covered.

The scary part of the article is how easy it is for anybody to record you by remote access: 'The taped-over camera and microphone jack are usually a signal that someone is concerned, perhaps only vaguely, about hackers’ gaining access to his or her devices by using remote-access trojans — a process called “ratting.” ... The practice is fairly technologically simple: Hackers trick people into clicking on links or unfamiliar websites containing malware that allows them access to the devices.


If it's this easy to start recording people in their own home via their laptop camera, would you consider covering that camera?

Winterlong

Why anyone would want to record me and what I get up to in my own home is beyond me!!

Barry Badrinath

No

Just the same with the cameras on your phone.

Careful with the apps you download.

ohnonotgmail

TBH if somebody did manage to hijack the webcam on my laptop the only victim would be them.

ampleforth

I always wear something funny and dance spontaneously in my apartment in case somebody is watching...

Winterlong

No

Winterlong wrote: »

Why anyone would want to record me and what I get up to in my own home is beyond me!!

Me also. But there are now many examples of people losing jobs, court cases etc for what has appeared online about them. Your life could be in a very different place in five or ten years and somebody could have been recording you. Even if you're a minor county councillor, somebody could easily start recording what's going on in your private life if it's as simple to do as that NYT's article says it is. An entire market could emerge down the road in this sort of stuff. Better safe than sorry.

No

Thinking of all the links I click on and I'm wondering would the average Norton/AVG/Avast scan identify this sort of malware, or would it be possible for it to remain on your laptop without being identified? (I scan the laptop completely once a week). Is there any product which could spot such malware immediately?

crusha101

There is a huge difference between spying on a billionaire tech entrepreneur who uses his laptop to plan the expansion of his business and spying on a part time brickie from tallaght who uses his laptop to find budget all inclusive holidays.

crusha101

No

crusha101 wrote: »

There is a huge difference between spying on a billionaire tech entrepreneur who uses his laptop to plan the expansion of his business and spying on a part time brickie from tallaght who uses his laptop to find budget all inclusive holidays.

From the article: '“For people who are not C.E.O.s, the threat is people scanning the internet for accessible webcams for a range of motives, from voyeurism to extortion,” Mr. Cobb wrote in an email.' The brickie in Tallaght could be pricing a deal that a competitor wants to secure... he could be fiddling his taxes... he could be having an affair...he could be the politician/planning official-bribing property developer of the future.

beach_walker

No

I always have mine (on my laptop) covered when not in use. At work, have (well had) my webcam pointed at the roof when not on a call.

Jawgap

If somebody 'rats' my iPad they're quite likely to catch me on the bog!!!

that'll learn them quick enough :D:D:D

Sh1tbag OToole

I would just disconnect the little miniscule USB plug inside the laptop. Much tidier than messing around with unreliable tape

Winterlong

Deleted User wrote: »

Me also. But there are now many examples of people losing jobs, court cases etc for what has appeared online about them. Your life could be in a very different place in five or ten years and somebody could have been recording you. Even if you're a minor county councillor, somebody could easily start recording what's going on in your private life if it's as simple to do as that NYT's article says it is. An entire market could emerge down the road in this sort of stuff. Better safe than sorry.

Nah, too many people want us to be afraid and live our lives in fear.
I certainly wont be living my life in fear and covering up any of the 7 odd cameras on various devices in my home.
No fear man!

Thoie

No

I keep a trimmed down post-it over the camera of my work laptop, for the simple reason that I work from home, and we use Lync a lot for meetings. The post-it just ensures that if I accidentally click on the video instead of audio or screen share that I don't scare my colleagues.

If I want to do a video meeting, I just take the post-it off, but because it's a deliberate action I can check how I look/what's in the background before I remove it.

Agricola

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

I would just disconnect the little miniscule USB plug inside the laptop. Much tidier than messing around with unreliable tape

Stop blinding us with your technobabble!

Sh1tbag OToole

Agricola wrote: »

Stop blinding us with your technobabble!

Just horse the laptop into that volcano in Iceland that's about to go off. Problem sorted.

HensVassal

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

I would just disconnect the little miniscule USB plug inside the laptop. Much tidier than messing around with unreliable tape

Bit of a pain in the bollocks having to crack open the laptop each time you want to skype someone.

suicide_circus

I destroy my laptop with a golf club after each use on account of it being covered in filthy germs. It's a very expensive practice but gives me peace of mind.

HensVassal

No

HensVassal wrote: »

Bit of a pain in the bollocks having to crack open the laptop each time you want to skype someone.

hehe.

gramar

suicide_circus wrote: »

I destroy my laptop with a golf club after each use on account of it being covered in filthy germs sperms. It's a very expensive practice but gives me peace of mind.

Fyp :pac:

Duggy747

I just wear my tinfoil hat to upset the frequencies from the moon base.

aphex™

No

Been doing it for a few years since I heard webcam hacking and html5 exploits were a thing.

Dial Hard

All anyone would see if they hacked into my laptop camera is me sitting in front of it at work or possibly updating my iTunes. Scandalous. I don't leave the laptop on when I'm not using it, let alone on and open.

AndyBoBandy

No

We all do it with our work laptops,

The problem is when your out & about, and joining a conf call with a webex meeting,

When you open the webex meeting, it turns on your camera by default (but doesn't broadcast to the room, (though you see yourself)), but a wrong click somewhere and suddenly your camera is broadcasting to 100-200 people in the meeting!!

it does be very funny because there's always a good few have their cameras on, and some don't even realise it.

Speedwell

No

My boss in IT used to insist we keep the cam covered by a bit of Post-It unless it was actually in use. Apparently someone in corporate IT had written into the seldom-read computer use policy that the company could access the cam whenever they saw fit, and my boss heard that that person was in the habit of taking advantage of the policy for his own entertainment.

pajor

No

I've had a little plastic stick on slider cover over my laptop webcam for about 2 years now. I got it off eBay. Got my gf one too.

Though if someone hacked into my webcam they would not like what they see anyway. :pac:

aphex™

No

Dial Hard wrote: »

All anyone would see if they hacked into my laptop camera is me sitting in front of it at work or possibly updating my iTunes. Scandalous. I don't leave the laptop on when I'm not using it, let alone on and open.

Its that people can blackmail others (mostly happens to teenagers) and threaten them to send the stuff to family/ friends on facebook etc. Could just be images of people getting changed.

silverharp

in the movies the little light always come on?

Duggy747

Poll is public.............OP is trying to gauge which webcams to log into.

Sneaky bastard :pac:

Speedwell

No

Speedwell wrote: »

My boss in IT used to insist we keep the cam covered by a bit of Post-It unless it was actually in use. Apparently someone in corporate IT had written into the seldom-read computer use policy that the company could access the cam whenever they saw fit, and my boss heard that that person was in the habit of taking advantage of the policy for his own entertainment.

Fúcking hell. Hadn't even thought of that. If they wanted to target you for dismissal with a bit of selective editing that's a useful resource.

Maximus Alexander

If someone gets their kicks out of watching a 30 year old Dublin lad play video games or write software they can go ahead and pull the stomachs off themselves so long as I remain oblivious.

Dial Hard

aphex™ wrote: »

Its that people can blackmail others (mostly happens to teenagers) and threaten them to send the stuff to family/ friends on facebook etc. Could just be images of people getting changed.

Yeah, well as I said, I'm not in the habit of getting changed in front of my open and on laptop.

In fact now that I think of it, my laptop has never even been in my bedroom.

Letree

No

I've had mine covered for years, i don't ever use it.

Winterlong

My dashcam has just been returned to me by the Nextbase service department. They left a memory card in it.
Loads of videos of them working in their workshop. There are 3 male employees and 1 female.
There is one particularly good video that has a soldering iron plugged in.
Will sell to highest bidder.

Gatling

It was a big problem a few years ago when sickos were targeting young girls and blackmailing them to perform shows of s sexual nature

smash

McGruber wrote: »

Just the same with the cameras on your phone.

Careful with the apps you download.

<tinfoil hat>
Every time you open snapchat it takes a photo of your face and sends it to the FBI!
</tinfoil hat>

AnonoBoy

Hey - if someone wants to spy on the boring old orgies I'm throwing then I'm ok with that as along as they give us their credit card details as per the site rules.

Barry Badrinath

No

smash wrote: »

<tinfoil hat>
Every time you open snapchat it takes a photo of your face and sends it to the FBI!
</tinfoil hat>

Ehrmaigawd!

The FBI are perverts!!!!

Boom_Bap

We have a high ranking guy in work who regularly drags me into meetings in his office with a few others. He's have is web cam turned on and spends his time rotating and focusing it on the person in the room who is talking so the meeting on the other side can see who's talking.

Funny thing is that where I sit in his office, the camera can only pick up the side/back of my head.

Anytime I cover mine at home, its ripped off by the missus, she uses video chat quite a bit.

There is not that much I would be getting up to in my house that anyone would want to watch. If they go to all that trouble to access my domestic life then they are welcome to watch it.

I did drive one of those cars with the "Emergency Radio" that connects you to the call centre if the car does something like registers a crash or some other issues or distress.

I always thought that if I was working in that call centre job I would probably pass the boring moments just randomly tuning into cars to see what they were doing or saying.

I found I did not sing as loud or as crazily while driving that car alone as I do when alone in my own.

RayM

You're all looking very well today.

Irish Guitarist

I used to disable it in my settings and turn it on when I needed to, which wasn't very often. If you're that worried about people spying on you covering it up won't stop them hearing you through the microphone.

Now I'm using Linux instead of Windows and I think the webcam might be turned off by default. I'm not entirely sure but I'm not paranoid enough to worry about it.

Cee-Jay-Cee

No

About a year ago I was browsing through some asian selling site (ala Aliexpress DH-Gate etc) and I got a pop up message from some asian girl telling me she could see me. I closed down the lap top and covered the webcam with black electrical tape. Its been taped up ever since. It freaked me out.