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Removing iPhone 5 cameras

I would suggest getting a feature phone, cameraless BB, or ask for a work phone since they have special requirements, or to just leave your phone in the car.

I don't see why having a smartphone is such a necessity at work, and if it is ask your employer for a compliant phone.
 
BiggAW said:
If you're on AT&T, the store on Broad Street can disable the camera using parental controls, and write a letter for security. Bring it to the gate, they will inspect it and give it a sticker. You're good to go. I'm not saying the policy makes any sense whatsoever, but that's what the policy is. My 4S is disabled this way, and is allowed in all of the facilities (I'm in three of the four on a regular or semi-regular basis).
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I am surprised they will accept a software fix, as I assumed removing the camera would be the only method to bring an iPhone in. I have no personal experience with these types of facilities, so I will defer to the people who do. With a software fix you could enable the camera in five minutes by doing a restore in iTunes from a computer, or even a reset to defaults from the phone.
Of course I guess it is up to the security, and if they want to accept a software disabled camera that is their choice. The best thing to do would be to get the specific requirements of what they would allow.
 
The device can not have a camera in it. I have the same problem at work. It is best to just not take it to work with you unless they give you a pass on it like my employer does.

If the job requires a cell phone, then let them provide it. I personally wouldn't permanently modify my iPhone so I could take it to work.
 
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pooleman said:
At this point I pretty much live on my iPhone. My wife has no cell at all but she sends me iMessages from her iPad. Yes i can live without my phone at work, I just like having it on me. I found a company that will remove your phones camera for $19. When i start on June 3rd I will ask security specifically what i have to do to be allowed to bring in my iPhone.
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If u "live" on ur phone, isnt the camera a big part of it? I'd hate my phone if the canera was removed. Can't u maybe buy a iPhone 4 that u can bring to work and get the camera removed from that. Looking back, it barely had a camera anyway.
 
Better yet, why don't you just ask the manager what is accepted and what is not and go from there. Real simple :D
 
darster said:
How did people function 5 years ago without smartphones? They were able to work. People were able to contact them. You do know they do have landlines at these plants. If someone needs to get a hold of you, they can. I have worked at places where cameras on phones were not allowed. After a few days without having it on you, you don't even miss it.
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5 years ago... Try a lot longer like erm 1996 for the Nokia 9000 admitly no camera but a smart phone for the time. 2002 may have been earlier was around the time I remember having a touchscreen (with little stylus) smartphone running windows that had a camera. Always remember that bloody phone because if the battery went flat completely you had to reset the whole phone up including contacts lol.

Op there are dod approved iPhones on the market as well as blackberrys for use in secure environments.
 
Stick it in your *** and take it out after you enter the facility.

Now on a serious note, like someone else mentioned if you are thinking of physically removing the camera for you Iphone get a iPhone 3G or 3GS and add a line to your account.

Plus most faculties that are the strong on security have walls the dont penetrate phone signals and you'll be stuck with no signal anyways
 
People keep saying get a BB, etc. Yet the OP mentioned that he uses iMessage with his wife.
If thats a deal breaker, then only an iDevice will work. What iDevice will support iMessage but not have a camera? Early iPod Touch?
Not sure.

All things being equal, if you must have a phone with you, get a cheap non-smart phone while working. The job is more important that having your iPhone with you at all times.
 
iceterminal said:
What iDevice will support iMessage but not have a camera? Early iPod Touch?
Not sure.
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The first generation iPad runs iOS 5.1.1 and does not have a camera. I still use mine every day, and it works great for many things including iMessage. It might be useful if you have it at a desk as opposed to moving around a lot.
 
dave420 said:
The first generation iPad runs iOS 5.1.1 and does not have a camera. I still use mine every day, and it works great for many things including iMessage. It might be useful if you have it at a desk as opposed to moving around a lot.
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Ok good, so the OP has an option should he choose this. If he needs iMessage, find an older iTouch. Craigslist/ebay I would think.

Thanks Dave420
 
paulbennett95 said:
I would suggest getting a feature phone, cameraless BB, or ask for a work phone since they have special requirements, or to just leave your phone in the car.

I don't see why having a smartphone is such a necessity at work, and if it is ask your employer for a compliant phone.
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That's ridiculous. There are no halfway modern smartphones available that don't have cameras. It's a simple process to do it via software, it's a lot better than the epoxy method.

They block a TON of stuff, including streaming radio at work, and if you need a work phone, you will be given one, but they are extremely basic slider or flip phones.

dave420 said:
I am surprised they will accept a software fix, as I assumed removing the camera would be the only method to bring an iPhone in. I have no personal experience with these types of facilities, so I will defer to the people who do. With a software fix you could enable the camera in five minutes by doing a restore in iTunes from a computer, or even a reset to defaults from the phone.
Of course I guess it is up to the security, and if they want to accept a software disabled camera that is their choice. The best thing to do would be to get the specific requirements of what they would allow.
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That's the way they comply with our customer's demands about plant security. It's gotten better over the last couple of years, at one point several years ago, you couldn't have anything with a camera, which meant no iPhones at all, so the coolest phone you could have at the time with the BB Tour on Verizon. It's not a perfect system, and there's a lot of other things security has to look out for, that's why all employees who have access to sensitive information have security clearances.

mwhals said:
The device can not have a camera in it. I have the same problem at work. It is best to just not take it to work with you unless they give you a pass on it like my employer does.

If the job requires a cell phone, then let them provide it. I personally wouldn't permanently modify my iPhone so I could take it to work.
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It's not really permanent. Just restore it and it comes back if you ever want to re-sell or are working for a different company. At least that's the case here, if your work doesn't allow the software disablement, then that wouldn't work.

Most positions don't require a cell phone, although it's handy to have one sometimes. The ones that do provide a basic flip phone, and a very few higher-ups or people in certain positions have the BB's.

sulpfiction said:
If u "live" on ur phone, isnt the camera a big part of it? I'd hate my phone if the canera was removed. Can't u maybe buy a iPhone 4 that u can bring to work and get the camera removed from that. Looking back, it barely had a camera anyway.
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Yeah, that's why I have an iPhone 4S for the week, and a Galaxy S III on the weekends. It sucks breaking the text message chains up, but I live with it. I find that I usually don't go back more than a few messages. I did it that way because I also wanted LTE while traveling, but locally HSPA+ is more than adequate enough, as it's always fast, and never gets congested. For the OP, if you don't have a bunch of extra upgrades like me, I'd kill the camera on a used 3GS or 4, and get something good, like the new iPhone that's coming out in the fall or a Galaxy S 4 as a weekend/vacation/travel phone. If you want a good phone, and are willing to kill the camera, that's fine too.

ross1998 said:
Plus most faculties that are the strong on security have walls the dont penetrate phone signals and you'll be stuck with no signal anyways
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There's a cell tower down the street, and data works fine in most of the buildings. It's bad in some of the bathrooms. The signal isn't great, but usually 2-3 bars gets a megabit or two on HSPA+.

dave420 said:
The first generation iPad runs iOS 5.1.1 and does not have a camera. I still use mine every day, and it works great for many things including iMessage. It might be useful if you have it at a desk as opposed to moving around a lot.
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That would require another data plan, except for the fact that they are absolutely not allowed in the facility. iPhone with no camera- fine. Galaxy Note with no camera- fine. Kindle- No. iPad Mini- No. Don't ask me why, but that's the policy.

iceterminal said:
Ok good, so the OP has an option should he choose this. If he needs iMessage, find an older iTouch. Craigslist/ebay I would think.

Thanks Dave420
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And iPod Touch is fine, except for the fact that it doesn't have a cellular radio to get data, so iMessage wouldn't work. It would only work as an offline iPod.
 
Email and land lines always work if my wife needs to contact me. I am sure it works at the OP's new job too.
 
lordofthereef said:
Telling him to leave the phone at home is unnecessary and unhelpful;
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Quite frankly, nothing we could tell him is helpful, really. The only source of helpful information is his employer. Each one has different policies about how hard and fast the "no camera phones" rule is. He may get by with a device profile restriction; OR his employer may think even that is too much of a risk (or the IT department is incompetent/unwilling to do this). In which case, permanent modification may be an option, provided the employer is willing to take the time and effort to have their security staff look over the phone and ensure the camera is really made inert.

OR, his employer could be real jerks, and decide even that's just too much work. In which case, he has no choice at all but to leave the phone outside or do without iOS/iMessage.


Also, depending on where exactly he works, a mobile phone could be a lifeline as well. Sometimes you can't rely on a landline if, for example, there is a risk of attack.
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An employer that takes the time/effort to ban camera-equipped devices often provides a level of communication they feel is adequate for the situation at hand. It's then up to the prospective employee to decide if they're comfortable with that decision. In any case, If the OP absolutely needs a cell phone for a lifeline, then he probably needs to look for a non smartphone to do the job while he's on work premises.

But again, lacking specific information about who the employer is or their policies, it's anyone's guess what's going on.
 
You can pull the camera out yourself - the phone will still function fine without the camera assembly.
 
scaredpoet said:
Quite frankly, nothing we could tell him is helpful, really. The only source of helpful information is his employer. Each one has different policies about how hard and fast the "no camera phones" rule is. He may get by with a device profile restriction; OR his employer may think even that is too much of a risk (or the IT department is incompetent/unwilling to do this). In which case, permanent modification may be an option, provided the employer is willing to take the time and effort to have their security staff look over the phone and ensure the camera is really made inert.

OR, his employer could be real jerks, and decide even that's just too much work. In which case, he has no choice at all but to leave the phone outside or do without iOS/iMessage.




An employer that takes the time/effort to ban camera-equipped devices often provides a level of communication they feel is adequate for the situation at hand. It's then up to the prospective employee to decide if they're comfortable with that decision. In any case, If the OP absolutely needs a cell phone for a lifeline, then he probably needs to look for a non smartphone to do the job while he's on work premises.

But again, lacking specific information about who the employer is or their policies, it's anyone's guess what's going on.
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Say what you will, telling him "just leave it in your car" is absolutely unhelpful, IMO. Maybe he was unaware of methods these companies can and do take to disable cameras. That's generally why one comes to forums, to ask questions. I REALLY don't think he came to these forums because he couldn't fathom that not bringing his phone to work is a viable option, can you? Maybe my expectations of the general intelligence of a person working in a high security area are just too high. I don't know. That is absolutely all I have been trying to say here.

In any case, I am interested in hearing what the answer to his dilemma is.
 
Brian Y said:
You can pull the camera out yourself - the phone will still function fine without the camera assembly.
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Oh great...Remove camera prior to going to work, re-install camera when off work, than remove camera again next day work day and so on. Makes no sense. Not to mention screwing around with the darn thing may void the warranty if something goes wrong.

I buy the iPhone for all the functions it has, not to disable/remove it nonsense
 
lordofthereef said:
Say what you will, telling him "just leave it in your car" is absolutely unhelpful, IMO. Maybe he was unaware of methods these companies can and do take to disable cameras. That's generally why one comes to forums, to ask questions. I REALLY don't think he came to these forums because he couldn't fathom that not bringing his phone to work is a viable option, can you? Maybe my expectations of the general intelligence of a person working in a high security area are just too high. I don't know. That is absolutely all I have been trying to say here.

In any case, I am interested in hearing what the answer to his dilemma is.
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This is a stupid argument. The OP can bring his phone to the appropriate AT&T or Verizon store, get the camera locked out in Parental Controls, and get the sticker for it. Mine is set up that way, and it comes to work with me every day. The policy may sound silly to you, but that's what it is.

How other companies handle it, I don't know. If he's on T-Mobile or Sprint, he may have to use black epoxy, which is a bit more permanent, as I'm not sure if they have a process yet to handle the software disablement.

There is NO reason to remove the camera entirely in this case, it's just more risk than it gains (it gains nothing).

SR45 said:
Oh great...Remove camera prior to going to work, re-install camera when off work, than remove camera again next day work day and so on. Makes no sense. Not to mention screwing around with the darn thing may void the warranty if something goes wrong.

I buy the iPhone for all the functions it has, not to disable/remove it nonsense
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Well in this case, our customer dictates the policy on cameraphones. Agree with it or not, that's the policy. We can choose to either not bring our phone in, or disable the camera. Among the people I've seen, some disable, and some just leave it in their car. If you disable the camera, you can choose to have a separate camera when you're off work, or to do what I do and SIM swap to another phone for some weekends where I want a cameraphone (in my case, a Galaxy S III).

I look at it this way. I work about 40 hours a week, sometimes more. My iPhone could have it's camera functional, but then I wouldn't have the phone for that 40+ hours a week. Is a phone fully functional if I don't have it for a good chunk of my life? I like to be able to listen to streaming music, or have the ability to access email, sms, and calls on occasion. It's also helpful to have a cell phone for work purposes, and since I have way more minutes than I can use, and the company phones are Mobile to Mobile, it doesn't cost me anything to do that.

I would have to say though, that I would be kind of pissed off if a company that's not a US DoD contractor had a policy that bans cameraphones. We have a reason for it. Private companies that don't do DoD contracts don't.
 
BiggAW said:
This is a stupid argument. The OP can bring his phone to the appropriate AT&T or Verizon store, get the camera locked out in Parental Controls, and get the sticker for it. Mine is set up that way, and it comes to work with me every day. The policy may sound silly to you, but that's what it is.

How other companies handle it, I don't know. If he's on T-Mobile or Sprint, he may have to use black epoxy, which is a bit more permanent, as I'm not sure if they have a process yet to handle the software disablement.

There is NO reason to remove the camera entirely in this case, it's just more risk than it gains (it gains nothing).
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What's a stupid argument? Did you mean to respond to another post? You speak of things that have nothing to do with what I said. :confused:
 
lordofthereef said:
What's a stupid argument? Did you mean to respond to another post? You speak of things that have nothing to do with what I said. :confused:
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The whole argument of not bringing it or bringing it. The OP wants to bring his phone, and there is a simple solution to do so. Whether anyone else thinks the OP should or should not disable the camera to be able to bring it into the plant, is irrelevant. I probably should have quoted scaredpoet, since a lot of parts of his post made no sense, but you were going back and forth, so I quoted the newest post.
 
BiggAW said:
The whole argument of not bringing it or bringing it. The OP wants to bring his phone, and there is a simple solution to do so. Whether anyone else thinks the OP should or should not disable the camera to be able to bring it into the plant, is irrelevant. I probably should have quoted scaredpoet, since a lot of parts of his post made no sense, but you were going back and forth, so I quoted the newest post.
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I... Wasn't arguing that. I'm completely agreeing with you here. Guess you misunderstood.
 
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