I don't understand why I keep reading about people wanting to cover up the camera....I'm now under the impression a hacker or somebody can "unknowingly" view me, am I correct? Should I block my camera?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Some "unknown" body can look at me through my facetime camera?
- Thread starter Swagged
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Yes I think that people can do this... However it would be really uncommon..
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/12/1...-macbook-webcams-without-green-warning-light/
EDIT: After reading a bit, as long as your MacBook was produced after 08, you should be fine
What you need to ask yourself is what are you doing that would be of any interest to a 3rd party.
Barney
Barney
Haha yeah that's true, however its still quite unnerving especially as I keep my MacBook in my bedroom so I wouldn't want people snooping on me getting changed or tracking my movements. It is basically just a massive invasion of people's privacy.
Yes, but snooping by turning on the camera remotely (even if it were possible) is limited in a number of ways.
1. The lid on your laptop has to be open. (Close the lid when you are dressing, same reason as closing your window blinds
)
2. Viewing through your camera is limited to what is in the field of view (the snooper can't turn your laptop to look in different directions, so try turning the laptop so there's little or nothing in view)
You can soft-disable the camera by removing the relevant .kext file(s)
You can internally disconnect the camera (likely voiding any warranty)
Finally, the easiest block is to cover the camera with tape.
1. The lid on your laptop has to be open. (Close the lid when you are dressing, same reason as closing your window blinds
)2. Viewing through your camera is limited to what is in the field of view (the snooper can't turn your laptop to look in different directions, so try turning the laptop so there's little or nothing in view)
You can soft-disable the camera by removing the relevant .kext file(s)
You can internally disconnect the camera (likely voiding any warranty)
Finally, the easiest block is to cover the camera with tape.
We all watch too many Crime/Spy movies !!
Who would be interested in you or me ?? really !!
Perhaps if you were someone working high up in a weapons development
company or something .... turn it off or use tape
M.
Trust me, you're not interesting enough to be hacked, else you wouldn't be asking this question.
No offense, but unless you're a gov't official or celebrity, what's the point?
I think that's a very wrong question to ask. For one, if you really never do anything that could be of interest to a 3rd party, or could be misconstrued and used against you in any way, well, you either live a remarkably boring life or are just not being honest with yourself.
A better notion to ponder (and the reason why I don't bother covering my camera despite the fact that I could totally see how it could be used against me), is that someone getting access to the camera would also likely have complete access to all my files, communications and built-in microphone. All of those would be far more valuable to a hacker and pose a greater threat to me if misused.
Instead of putting electric tape over my camera, I try to cut off such treats more upstream. That means have a decent firewall on my router, avoid using unsecured public wifi hotspots, don't stick random USB sticks into my computer and in general follow a multitude of easy safe practices that reduce your chances of getting hacked in the first place.
While you may not be "interesting" enough for a hacker to want to watch you with your webcam, I'm sure there may be some information that would be of value (financial info would be the easiest and most commonly stolen item).
I disagree with that. I do lots of things that I wouldn't want to share with anyone, but I don't do them while on the computer.
When I'm on the computer I'm looking at either the screen or the keyboard (can't touch type), that isn't worth watching. When I'm doing other things my laptop is closed, why would I leave it open?
I agree that there is a lot more sensitive DATA on my laptop and I wouldn't want a hacker to access that. If somebody has the knowledge and opportunity to hack the camera I'm sure they would have the knowhow to hack the rest of the system and install key loggers etc that would be far more rewarding than peering at my ugly mug.
Barney