Absolutely, unless you’re lucky enough to have a laptop with a Physical killswitch on your Webcam + Mic module, then it’s not needed since flipping the Switch physically kills power to the Camera module’s USB header.
Framework Laptops have this Feature.
My Asus has one and I didn’t know about it and FOR YEARS I thought my webcam was broken- it wasn’t even showing up in the device manager. I bought an external webcam, because I figured it was pooched and I had to use a webcam sometimes, but not often enough to care into looking to get it repaired.
This is a story about me being dumb.
Maybe that’s why many PCs these days don’t have them, and also why they don’t have network kill-switches anymore. People just got confused and thought something was broken.
I’m glad I’m not the only one. I’ve since been issued new laptops for work that have physical covers built in and I’m a big fan of those, though I know it doesn’t disable a mic.
It would give me peace of mind if the switch also slid a cover over the lens. Is there video of people confirming the function of the switch with a voltmeter?
I wish the framework also had a physical switch for the antenna. At least it’s made easy to entirely remove and replace the antenna manually - then using an external antenna has the kill switch of just unplugging it, though it then takes up a port.
If you want that too you could buy one of these covers. I haven’t seen any videos of it but running
dmesg | grep -i "Camera"seems to confirm that it does cut the connections since the devices disappear.Yeah I haven’t seen as many computers with Network/Wireless killswitches, they used to be much more common in the past, so for network cutoff your best bet would probably be to disable or remove the onboard Wifi and use an external Wifi card in one of the expansion slots. Ideally you could use something like this to still have a USB A port but also have a Wifi dongle inside it as well.
I am mostly new to linux and will study on that command.
Regrettably, the camera and microphone switches leave no room next to the lens for the cover in your first link to slide to. I hope a future generation of the screen bezel considers this or incorporates its own lens cover into the camera switch. And thanks for the link to the USB-A/wifi dongle, I hadn’t yet checked out what the makers are up to where expansion cards are concerned!
Zuckerberg has been doing this for over a decade.
https://mashable.com/article/mark-zuckerberg-webcam-cover
The answer is yes, obviously duh, yes.
My Thinkpad has a built-in camera cover. I keep it closed unless I’m specifically using it.
Thinkpads are great that way
This is the way…
Have there ever been cases where this actually happened?
Yes, several schools have been caught activating cameras in the home, and have punished students for activities seen on those illegally enabled cameras
Nothing happened to the schools
Spying trough the webcam?
Hell yeah. There’s even sellers on hacker forums that sell access to the computers of hot girls. It’s sick but it happens.
Most big time hackers don’t do this though. They’ll have so many computers under their control they don’t waste time on singular targets.
Can you provide any sources?
This was over 10 years ago, but it popped into my head as soon as I saw this thread. Over 1,600 rent-to-own stores were found by the FTC to have spyware installed on laptops that enabled the stores to access the webcams. The spyware also included keyloggers.
I would bet money that this type of shit still happens.
Not really. Just scour some hacker forums and you’ll find them though. Most RATs (trojans) have the ability to view trough the webcam.
Yes, yes you should.
Hell, I unplug the damned thing when I’m not using it.
Yes. Technically everything is hackable.
Cover all cameras on all devices.
Related, when we were shopping for a smart TV last year, it was so difficult to find one without a microphone… I already don’t like my phone having a microphone, why would I put it into my bloody TV…
I already don’t like my phone having a microphone
A phone without a microphone. A phone… without a microphone… is not a phone.
Can I ask what you use a phone for?
by that sentence I obviously meant that the hardware has the ability to listen to me at all times, but I guess it needs to be spelled out
Classic missing the thread deliberately for internet clout
What about my cameras?
EFF gives out tiny stickers at conventions for that purpose. I’ve been staring at an EFF sticker for years.
Can you cover the lens with sandpaper and rub it for a few minutes? Permanent problems require permanent solutions
This is the energy I’m looking for. Impractical but powerful.
Most people would like to use the webcam occasionally though.
Chapstick + Webcam + Twist Chapstick on Lens + “The camera looks like that even when I clean it” = Problem Solved
Yea that’s just great when I’m needing to do a virtual job interview. Really professional.
Chapstick is removable…
Oh yeah. Use electrical tape.
If you’re running Linux, does this still apply!?
Yes
Not as much(probably on an order of magnitude less than with windows OSs), but depending on your distro package manager,specfic packages installed and update schedule etc supply chain attacks and other methods of malware injection are still possible,
it doesn’t harm to have your camera covered when not in active use(you can use something like bluetack to cover it if you don’t have an in-built slide cover) so why not imo
https://www.csoonline.com/article/3560646/malicious-open-source-software-packages-have-exploded-in-2024.html <- this could be of some intetest
you can use something like bluetack to cover it if you don’t have an in-built slide cover
FYI they sell dedicated covers for the Webcam which stick around the camera and can slide to cover it and slide to uncover it. If you don’t have a Killswitch on your Camera they’re a good thing to have
as long as you don’t use evil apps
All good then.
My framework laptop has a built-in, physical kill switch for both the webcam and mic.
On my desktop pc, I cover the webcam or unplug it entirely until I need it.
Yeah I use a desktop PC, and like once every 2 weeks I plug in my webcam for a work meeting, the rest of the time I bask in the comfort that my PC has no visual/audio sensors 😌
I have a cheap garbage windows work laptop without a cover. So I just put a clothesline clip on it at all times.
One of the benefits of using a desktop PC instead of a laptop xd
(Tbh if I had a laptop I would surely cover it up. Not going to trust software with this…)
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