Slashdot Mirror
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."
The only people who would object to such surveillance are those who have something to hide.
I'll bet he also locks his doors, doesn't write his passwords on sticky notes, and doesn't believe the Nigerian "Princes".
Tempest, teapot.
Personally, I believe manufacturers should add a mechanical switch that disables camera and microphone that cannot be overridden via software.
That is some high-quality satire right there. Too bad it will be lost on pretty much everyone outside our community. It is rare to see something so concise and on-point - thanks for including that quote!
I've always had tape on devices I own with embedded cameras (which are few), so this is not much of a 'thought' for me. Controlling the embedded microphone is far more difficult, especially on a tablet running a proprietary OS. For Android, there's always cyanogenmod,
Here in my area I'd say about 1 in 20 have the cameras taped over and once in awhile I see someone with the camera taped over on their phone and tablet.
Although I have not seen one person that's set up a defense for a hot mic yet.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
That was before people started broadcasting their boring life 24/7.
Seriously, are there really people who don't put tape on their web cams?
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.
I use medical adhesive tape because it's opaque and doesn't leave much residue. And a 1/2" wide roll was the first thing I found last time I looked for tape. It's not about back doors and government spying for me. It's about malware. I don't put tape on my phone, tho. Most of the time, one camera's pointed at the ceiling and the other is pointed at the table.
If you want something less tacky, you can get slider covers. Search for "webcam cover".
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.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
As thick as they come.
I also tape over the little MIC hole, even on my Wii U console and any other devices that comes with a camera/mic.
Other than that, I've got mechanical switches on my Studio Mics. They're almost always set to OFF.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
"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.
Comey admits he puts a piece of tape over the webcam lens on his laptop.
And I just thought his webcam was broken. Silly me.
The only people who would object to such surveillance are those who have something to hide.
If one were to look closely enough at anyone, one can find something they are doing that is illegal. On average, everyone commits three felonies a day. I guarantee you that if I looked into your life, I'd find something to put you in jail for.
And with out wars on drugs, terrorism, child pornography, and the Patriot Act, we have turned into a police state. And with political parties having the elite choose who we get to vote for, I for one do not think we live in a free country any longer.
We have given our freedoms away for security and there's no turning back.
Remove the mic and video drivers on boot, install a script to keep them unloaded. Or use windows and put tape over the one and hope someone isn't listening.
My sound card's preferences allow you to select different I/O configurations, & at least some of the options make the microphone jack be an output, so why not the reverse? Or at the very least, just switch to the stereo+microphone configuration if someone has a 7.1 setup...so you could at least spy on people with too many speakers.
It might not work with sufficiently fancy (powered or filtered or some such) speakers, but I have used a speaker as a microphone in an electronics project before. One schematic actually called for using an earphone as a microphone (because that was all the kit had).
I use Linux, my WebCam Works. So does the LED. But there was a previous Kernel revision where the Camera LED did NOT turn on. This was fixed. If I wanted to be sure my Camera couldn't use used to spy. I either could tape it or unload the driver.
How does black tape stop a microphone from working?
You put it on your lips.
I had a Chiquita Banana sticker on my notebook cameras since they day they didn't come anymore with that plastic slider to close them.
First it was having an 'indicator light' when the camera was in operation, and we were assured it was absolutey secure - until this came to light. () I read about someone who overcame a physical switch but have lost the link.
Nonetheless, I would not assume any physical switch on a computer. It's read and execution based on the sensor is still software (or firmware, or microcode).
It's not just the camera you need to protect. I used to carry a small audio adapter - plug it into the laptop and the built-in microphone is disabled. I got out of the habit, but the tape is always there.
Redundancy is good; triple redundancy is twice as good! - Me.
I guess we shouldn't have been surprised by this.
Dude... Did you grow up in a barren wasteland? *sighs*
Kids these days.
Alright, go get a speaker. Any speaker will do, some work better than others. Go get a pair of headphones. Mono work best but you can do whatever. Cut off the end - with enough wire left over to have room to strip it. Hook them up. There will be four wires, you will be attaching two. There will be two wires if you're using mono. Plug them into your computer. Speak into the speaker.
A microphone is just a speaker from the other direction. You can do it with just the headphones but they don't pick up the sound very well - you'll have to be REALLY loud. You really want a bigger speaker. They're designed differently but they're essentially the same thing. They both work by making contact and moving air - just in opposite directions. A speaker works as a microphone, just not very well.
(I'd not worry about laptop speakers being able to pick anything up when used as a microphone, they're just not going to be that effective.)
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
It is a good idea to mask a laptop's camera, but what about smartphones? They could be hacked too.
Dude, that a coil and magnet can be both a speaker and a microphone is no revelation for anyone with a basic grasp of physics. What the GP seems to imply though, is that the D/A converter that drives the speakers can be turned into an A/D converter "easily with code, no rewiring needed", in other words, that you could talk to your earbuds and record off them while they are not plugged into the mic socket. This does sound like an extraordinary claim and asking for extraordinary evidence is pretty sensible.
Every end has half a stick.
JFK was actually presented with a plan from our own military to bomb Miami, Fl. and blame it on Cuba in order to justify a war with Cuba. JFK thankfully rejected the idea. My point being is that even when government has good intentions it can be very, very dangerous. Another example is police agencies handing data to places outside of government such that there is no way to subpoena records. Even local police agencies often have exhaustive yellow sheets on almost everyone in their jurisdiction. Those yellow sheets are illegal. But they absolutely do exist. They may be held by groups such as the Officer's Retirement Council or some other gimmick which is not part of the government. But make no mistake. The cops have vast collections of knowledge about almost everyone. Departments do know how to share that information as well. For example, a machinist that i know was awakened in the wee hours of the night and taken to an interview. A vault had been drilled into and the cops were aware that he had machined armament metals in Hungary and Germany. How's that for a handy yellow sheet directory?
Some sound cards can do this. Plug in a device and it'll even ask you what you plugged in. This is mostly used to reduce the number of 3.5 mm jacks on the sound card. Surround sound setups may use the mic/line in jack to drive some of the surround speakers, especially one you start going past 5.1 set ups. Some laptops will combine the headphone out and mic/line in so that they can only put one jack on the computer.
Thanks. Fair enough, I get the headphones plugged into a multi-purpose jack hijacked to switch to mic in scenario, maybe that could be pulled off. Not to move the goalposts, but with speakers though, wouldn't you have an analog amp layer in between the coil and the jack? How do you make the power amp driving the speakers function backwards?
Every end has half a stick.
Sorry, but "given the capabilities of today's electronics" is so vague, it comes nowhere near. You could use this argument to claim exascale computing in a sand grain is already possible today.
Every end has half a stick.
The who system - the way we approach life - needs to be seriously and deeply retrospectively reviewed. If pot smoking were accepted, then pot smokers will not care if you see them smoking. Remove narcissism and half the problem is solved.
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
From what I've been reading about the FBI, I'm betting he put tape over the microphone. Then again, we'd all be more interested in what he's saying in his office than we would watching him pick his nose.
Um, that wouldn't help. It needs to be the milky colored scotch tape, or even better electrical tape.
Also, the microphones are just as insecure, but much harder to disable.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Let's face it ... your face ist mostly boring. They may take a funny photo of your mimic while watching porn, but that's it.
The more important part is the microphone and in most laptops it's not that easy to disable it in hardware.