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Best Webcam Privacy Cover?

ashcairo

ashcairo

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 2, 2013
51
32
London, UK
I used to use soomz.io one for the older model and it worked great, however it's too thick for the 2016 edition.

What's the best webcam privacy cover for the MacBook Pro 2016?
 
SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
The webcam's light is hardware interlocked to the camera. If the webcam is activated the light comes on.
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This. No need to uglify your beautiful laptop, this isn't some random Windows laptop.

The only way around this is if someone installed a malware on your system that could re-write the microcontroller.
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Exactly. This was possible with a 2010 or 2011 model (forgot which), and after that, Apple closed that security hole.
 
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For those who cover their webcam - I'm curious as to who would be spying on you and how you think your machine would get such spyware, especially when there are no reports of such spyware for the Mac anyway.
 
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xraydoc said:
For those who cover their webcam - I'm curious as to who would be spying on you and how you think your machine would get such spyware, especially when there are no reports of such spyware for the Mac anyway.
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It's mainly for piece of mind, it became pretty popular in the press this year with the FBI director and Mark Zuckerberg covering theirs.
 
xraydoc said:
For those who cover their webcam - I'm curious as to who would be spying on you and how you think your machine would get such spyware, especially when there are no reports of such spyware for the Mac anyway.
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Humans are naturally superstitious and suspicious until they are better informed.
[doublepost=1483208516][/doublepost]
ashcairo said:
It's mainly for piece of mind, it became pretty popular in the press this year with the FBI director and Mark Zuckerberg covering theirs.
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That was a few years ago and there was no basis for it even then if malware was avoided. It's older USB attached webcams with no security features that are vulnerable.
 
SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
The webcam's light is hardware interlocked to the camera. If the webcam is activated the light comes on. The only way around this is if someone installed a malware on your system that could re-write the microcontroller.
Click to expand...
I fully agree and am not one of those nuts that covers his camera...but there will always be people who insist the NSA injects software that enables the camera while bypassing the little green light. I suppose it's possible, but frankly I do not care. There are so many more avenues for silent, undetectable tapping so the only real solution is to live in a cave without any connectivity. I enjoy my life so I just live it but some people will always be paranoid.

So, cut a little circle out of a piece of black electrical tape. There, you are locked, loaded and have beat the NSA I guess. Oh and don't forget to cover your microphones, phone microphones, cameras on your phone, unplug your TV, internet and phone. And never leave your basement. Sounds fun I guess.
 
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I thought about this a while back but, I don't live in the states and I'm a guy - nobody's going to be watching me.

The FBI director and Zuckerberg have more cause to do this given that they are high profile targets.
 
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coolbreeze said:
I fully agree and am not one of those nuts that covers his camera...but there will always be people who insist the NSA injects software that enables the camera while bypassing the little green light. I suppose it's possible, but frankly I do not care. There are so many more avenues for silent, undetectable tapping so the only real solution is to live in a cave without any connectivity. I enjoy my life so I just live it but some people will always be paranoid.

So, cut a little circle out of a piece of black electrical tape. There, you are locked, loaded and have beat the NSA I guess. Oh and don't forget to cover your microphones, phone microphones, cameras on your phone, unplug your TV, internet and phone. And never leave your basement. Sounds fun I guess.
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Haha I don't think the NSA cares about me. Let's try not to get off topic though otherwise we'll get told off.

Just be weary that such injections can arrive via legit looking software these days. If members are downloading wares for any reason they should stop.
 
Sadly, I cover mine too. I don't use it enough for covering to be inconvenient. Yeah, I have an ugly cover on it, but no one is looking at it besides me. I use these. Re-usable, but cheap enough to just throw out when I need to use the camera which is maybe once a month. For you guys that are just blowing this off, I agree, the chances that someone will WANT to see what I'm up to are slim, and I'm only doing suspect things about 30% of the time. But still, a hack CAN be done if someone wants to.

https://www.amazon.com/Dispenser-As...&qid=1483220826&sr=8-2&keywords=post+it+flags
 
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It's a shame there isn't an elegant cover for the new MacBook Pro yet, because the older model has some ace looking covers.

s-l1600.jpg
 
So what about your microphones? How do you cover those up? (assuming software muting isn't enough since it can be hacked) Do you use Micro Snitch or something similar?

I reckon is much easier to spy on people by listening on them than getting video or pictures (less bandwidth, no witness light to hack, etc).
 
SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
Humans are naturally superstitious and suspicious until they are better informed.
[doublepost=1483208516][/doublepost]
That was a few years ago and there was no basis for it even then if malware was avoided. It's older USB attached webcams with no security features that are vulnerable.
Click to expand...
It was this year and he still keeps his camera covered. I used to work at Facebook - lots of folks there do the same thing.
 
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ashcairo said:
It's mainly for piece of mind, it became pretty popular in the press this year with the FBI director and Mark Zuckerberg covering theirs.
Click to expand...

Most people aren't as important as them. I think people are overly worried.
 
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