The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam (npr.org)

Martin Kaste, reporting for NPR: FBI Director James Comey gave a speech this week about encryption and privacy, repeating his argument that "absolute privacy" hampers law enforcement. But it was an offhand remark during the Q&A session at Kenyon College that caught the attention of privacy activists. Kaste points to a tweet by The Kenyon Collegian, "Comey admits he puts a piece of tape over the webcam lens on his laptop." The thought of the FBI chief taping over his webcam is an arresting one for many. His comment Wednesday was in response to a question about growing public awareness of the ways technology can spy on people, and he acknowledged sharing in the surveillance anxiety. "I saw something in the news, so I copied it. I put a piece of tape -- I have obviously a laptop, personal laptop -- I put a piece of tape over the camera. Because I saw somebody smarter than I am had a piece of tape over their camera." Not everyone is a fan. Security and privacy activist Christopher Soghoian said, "FBI Director Comey has created a "warrant-proof webcam" that will thwart lawful surveillance should he ever be investigated. Shame on him."

Comments

Is it news?

[Artem S. Tashkinov]

I vividly remember that one of Snowden's documents said that CIA had been dealing with webcam OEMs for years and CIA basically made them implement a special feature in their drivers which allowed them to spy on the user without turning on the camera LED.

Which means you cannot trust your camera LED anymore. Which means you should cover it at all times unless you're OK with someone unknown videotaping you.

Re:Is it news?

[Scot Seese]

It has been alleged for years that they can also remotely activate the built in microphone(s).

This is problematic as the internal microphones - such as the one(s) used in most Apple MacBook models - are internal, and don't feature a single, easily plugged or taped-over hole. Rather they use the thousands of perforations in the speaker grille (in the MacBook Pro) or other non-obvious openings.

The real issue here is that Americans used to believe their intelligence services were careful, and used traditional investigative techniques to build significant evidence to obtain wiretapping or eavesdropping warrants. In the post-Snowden world in which we live, that curtain was savagely ripped away, revealing the malevolent bulk meta data trawling, phone tapping, email sifting cloud storage plundering intelligence agency wizards trampling the constitution underfoot on a scale that should have Mount Rushmore weeping giant granite tears.

I have yet to see a single article where a single one of these federal agencies has been asked by a journalist to provide an example of a spectacular attack that was thwarted by all this Stazi level intelligence apparatus. Not one. You would think they would trot out precrime planning stage arrests on a regular basis to assuage the fears of an anxious public, but NooooOoOo, no such luck. Just trust us, folks!

proof he is uneducated in tech...

[Lumpy]

Dont really care about watching him.....

Now using the built in microphone to listen? a LOT more information is gained that way... If he was a competent FBI director he would order hardware WITHOUT a webcam or built in microphones and would have a team inspect it first.

Re:Webcam & Microphones

[fyngyrz]

Controlling the embedded microphone is far more difficult

Nah. A pair of wirecutters or a penknife "controls" the microphone in a monitor or laptop just fine. You can add your own switch to the broken conductor, and then you're back to "it's physics." Failing that, stick a pin in the hole and swish it around until it doesn't work any longer.

If you simply kill the built-in mic, when you need one, plug in a USB mic. Painless. Probably a better mic, too.

For a phone you can't really get into, keep it in a nice thick black bag. Or get rid of it entirely. It's always fun to actually, you know, talk to people in person. For those of us who still remember how... :) But again, you can probably kill the mic outright with nothing more than a pin. Then use a bluetooth headset when you want to talk.

This isn't all that hard to solve. Yet.

Re:Webcam & Microphones

[fyngyrz]

Oh, that's easy. You just take off your tinfoil hat and wrap it around the laptop or phone. I hear that dipping the phone in maple syrup also helps stop the signals.

Re:Tape is messy

[geek111]

"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself – anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality"

  - George Orwell, 1984

Sounds like Orwell's "facecrime" is dangerously close to becoming a real thing.