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Mark Zuckerberg Tapes Over His Webcam. Should You? (theguardian.com)
Remember when FBI's director James Comey was spotted using a piece of tape over the camera on his laptop? At the time, Comey noted that he started doing it after he saw a person "smarter" than him do it as well. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apparently also puts a tape over his webcam. Zuckerberg posted an image on Facebook yesterday, celebrating Instagram's big milestone of hitting 500 million monthly active users. In the background, we can see that his laptop has a tape over the webcam, as well as something around the microphone port. From a report on The Guardian: Even experts who don't cover their cameras think they should. Why doesn't Matthew Green, an encryption expert at Johns Hopkins University? "Because I'm an idiot," he said. "I have no excuse for not taking this seriously ... but at the end of the day, I figure that seeing me naked would be punishment enough." While Zuckerberg probably does have any number of advanced persistent threats trying to break his digital security, normal people shouldn't be too complacent either. Installing backdoors on compromised computers is a common way for some hackers to occupy their time.On an unrelated note, it appears, Zuckerberg uses Mozilla's Thunderbird as his primary email client.
I put tape over the light sensor on my laptop. Just in case it's actually a camera.
Yes, I'm that paranoid.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Mark Zuckerberg Tapes Over His Webcam. Should You?
Yes. Next question? Are they all this easy?
I normally use a post-it note, makes it easier to take off for when you actually need to use it.
Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
When I was a kid, there was an episode of the A Team where they took a Polaroid picture from the perspective of a security camera and then put that picture in front of the camera lens so it couldn't see them. Just do the same thing but with a print out of goatse or something.
I physically disconnected the camera on my laptop.
Then I walk around with a phone with who knows how many cameras and mics.
But does he cut the wires to the microphone on his computer?
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
If you're so worried about someone stealing audio/video off your laptop then why bother to type or click anything with it... I would assume that keylogging would be much simpler to implement.
Like totally paranoid this guy is so lame srsly tinfoil hat conspiracy theories rolf. Let's all laff.
-- Totally not NSA employee
AND WHO THE FUCK CARES?
I'm using Linux, so it probably doesn't work, anyway ;)
(serious: I suppose this actually IS possible on Linux, but any cases in the wild?)
If I had a net worth of 35.7 billion USD, then yeah. Until I make a bill, I'm just fine without any tape. I run Linux and keep my OS updated. Lot easier, more valuable targets out there.
-Mark Zuckerberg
A switch needs to be added to laptops and tablets to electrically turn off the microphone and camera by removing power to them. We can't trust software to do this, so it shouldn't be in a menu as a soft function.
it appears, Zuckerberg uses Mozilla's Thunderbird as his primary email client.
I've been using Thunderbird for a long time now. Before that I used Netscape Communicator (which looked a lot like the usual setup for Thunderbird). If he's smart enough to use Thunderbird then maybe he's not completely awful.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I have been doing that for years, that's what the Chiquita Banana stickers are for.
This story is utter manipulative bullshit. Propaganda.
The story encourages people to irrationally displace their urge to take action by suggesting an easy act of resistance.
It basically tries to delude people into thinking they are in any way resisting mass surveillance by encouraging them to engage tangibly with the idea by covering up their camera when not in use, or at least imagine that surveillance can be resisted by such simple and pointless measures. It's a blatant psychological trick.
You should not feel better about your privacy because you tape over a camera. Even if video data of you is being collected continuously most of that information is completely worthless compared to everything else that with absolute certainly is being collected and processed.
Of course the important video data would come from when you are actually using your camera....try covering it then....
You should be absolutely OUTRAGED that this kind of toxic thinking and blatant psychological manipulation is being shoved in front of your face if you have a single basic unit of free will and intelligence.
But then you should also be organizing into independent unions and threatening to strike to cripple the economy until the appropriate referendums can be held to abolish mass surveillance and tyranny in general. But hey, that takes a lot of confidence in your perception of society. I guess you're excused from your duty to your family, your community, and your country because you let your self esteem get worn down to nothing by constantly deferring to "experts" on every matter.
a person who thinks there should be no such thing as privacy for the rest of us values his own , there should be a word for that!
Thats why the Zuckerporn is so blurry!
for the last 5 years after I noticed the laptop camera status light came on for less than a second...
Since then I have been using a Logitech camera for Skype and other software. The Zeiss lens is way better, the angle is wider, and the microphone is also better. I remove it when not in use.
Why does no one point out the fact that for anyone to be watching your webcam or listening to your mic your computer is likely already infected by malware. In other words, if tape is stopping someone from watching you you have already failed.
Gawker claimed he's "paranoid as fuck" for doing this. So.. ya know, case closed.
The bigger story here is this is indisputable proof that Zuckerberg dances naked in his open plan office.
My desktops generally don't even *have* webcams on them unless it's deliberately attached for a particular event. My laptop has one built in, but Asus was nice enough to give many models a little sliding plate/door which covers the camera. When you want to conference, just slide the plate off.
Just to be sure, and to avoid hidden web cams too, I put tape over my private parts
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
When people ask me why I put making tape over my camera lens, I reply "Because I'm smarter than you."
Yeah, I'm an asshole.
"The ferrets, they're every where I tell you!"
Implication rejected.
Instead of taping over my webcam, microphone and whatever - I came up with the brilliant idea to cover MYSELF in tape all over, before I use any computer. That way it does not matter if I use some other computer where I have forgotten to tape over the webcam.
I'm not hardcore about it though, it's not like I use the camo duct tape, just the normal stuff.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's both good and bad. There's a certain practicality to it.
But it means that you think "your" computer isn't yours; that you've assumed it's reasonably likely that your computer is running hostile software. That may be true, but if you think it's the case, then how/why use that computer at all? You're trusting that computer with lots of things, not just the sights within its range.
Once you start thinking in terms of "this computer should be less powerful, because it's my adversary" then I think you've strayed from sanity. You should be thinking about how to change the computer's allegiance, not reducing its capabilities. A camera that works for you is unambiguously a good thing, unless you don't even trust yourself.
I would never do this on a laptop or desktop, because I make sure those are mine. But my phone? Yeah, I know that's not fully mine. (But someday that'll change. It's an important goal.)
Next question.
It's about how ridiculously easy it is for hackers to pwn your laptop and watch you over your webcam. The "community" that does that sort of thing has become pretty sophisticated in their tools.
Yeah the government could be watching me too. But while I oppose that on philosophical grounds, I don't personally do anything that might interest the government. Hackers OTOH are less discriminating, and it's easier to just eliminate the possibility of compromising pictures or even blackmail by covering the camera with some tape. The 1 cent it'll cost you is the cheapest insurance you can buy.
exercising precautions like this. Case in point, the director of the FBI, Zuckerberg, ect. are high profile targets, whereas jim bob every person is not.
I get that its possible, but for a normal person is it really probable? Unfortunately opinions like this reinforce what I like to call the "Im more important than I actually am, so I need to worry about x" effect. Like when people go over-board on safes, alarms, weapons...and those items literally become the most expensive things they own.
Everyone likes to believe they are someone important...someone worth robbing/hacking/extorting from...but the truth is you're probably not worth a crooks time...at least not the extortion from images kind.
I guess what im trying to say is sometimes stuff like this really comes off like fear mongering as opposed to genuine good practical advice. You want good practical advice on linux/windows/mac? Always create and use a secure, locked down account to surf with and never use your admin account for anything but software installs, that should take care of 99% of normal people's concerns.
Seriously, do you actually think we can't get into your computers?
We can even drive your cars.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I run FreeBSD on my laptop. I don't have camera drivers on this thing!
I have an indicator in my i3 bar that checks if the webcam driver is loaded and a hotkey that loads and unloads the driver when I want. That way I know when my webcam is disabled.
Posting to undo a bad mod
Go get 5 re-place-able and very opaque stickers for a $5 donation. I keep one on my webcam. To boot, it looks classier than a post-it; it lasts forever; and it advertises for the EFF -- a worthy cause.
Go here to get your own set of camera covers.
Are non Microsoft OSes also affected?
If your security is bad enough that other people can access your devices, then you probably have bigger problems than people seeing your junk.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
A camera is also a thing that can easily pointed to elsewhere. It is very limited in what and when it can see things. So if you are doing something it should not see, you better just turn it in another direction. That way you are more aware that you ARE being watched and not think all is well.
What is worrying is the microphone. We all know that search engines can understand what we are saying. What about the rest? How do YOU turn off you microphone?
Do you trust the software or do you open your device and de-solder the internal microphone if there is one, like on most laptops. And what about the one on the most used device, your phone?
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I came here to shill the same link.
Post it. Been there since, well, since I had a webcam on my laptop. You want to spy on me all you will see is "a suffusion of yellow".
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I normally use a post-it note
Same here - cut down to an appropriate size. Though I originally used electrical tape.
I've been taping them over since they started being standard equipment on enough laptops that finding a laptop without one when looking for one that could run linux crimped the selection.
(If they'd had a switch I might have trusted it - though that would be foolish. Since they don't the choice is easy.)
I
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
At some point the cameras will be pixel sized and be part of the screen.
But then I also don't use OSX or Windows, and I do not ever directly open email attachments, or download and run random shit I find on the web, so I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be worried
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Why hasn't someone come up with a virtual video camera device that could be fed whatever input you wanted (video files, stills, etc) and tell your camera-enabled software or OS that this was the "default" video camera or just outright disable the physical camera device.
I only turn it on when he makes a FB status update via the app. Legit.
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
If he likes Thunderbird so much, maybe he should sponsor its development with a little bit of that wad of cash in his pocket now that Mozilla.org is looking to jettison Thunderbird to the curve. He probably would make back in interest on his cash horde the paltry amount that it would take to keep Thunderbird alive and developed..
I should take my security concerns from a man who uses "dadada" as his password? Yeah, no thanks.
If Zuckerberg's laptop is pawned (despite access to the colossal might of Facebook's security dept) can we safely assume that Facebook itself is fully pawned?
Yes , this has been a standard practice since forever for all persons who have a technical background in (computer)electronics technology . These people all know what is possible with electronics and software since the dawn of electronics. That is why i never have any mic's or cams attached to any computer. And even then your speakers could be used to act as micro's to listen to your every word spoken. It's the same tech, and can be used for what it is not designed. This is not paranoia , it is common sense. Smart-tv's with build in cam and mic ? Never... It's all to easy for techsavy people (engineers mostly) to abuse everything. Let's not mention portable phones which are a true pest for everyone's privacy, believe it or not (i suggest you do).
A lot of people seem to forget that.
captcha: laughs
handy stickers just for the purpose, for a small donation:
https://supporters.eff.org/sho...
I'd prefer to know: how long before laptop oem's include a built in twist opening webcam lens cover, like some of the Cisco IP Phone's use (thinking of the CP-8865)
I believe I once heard that people like Zuck, Gates, Jobs etc. don't let their kids have smartphones, tablets, social media accounts etc. or severely limit the usage of such (and television) to a very limited time each day. No citation, obviously, but it would be nice for someone with the inclination and time to try and find out how much of this statement is true.
Which would probably say much more than some jewish dude taping over his cam.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
In the X-files (season 10) you'll notice that Mulder happily waves his phone around without covering the camera but on his laptop he has a piece of tape over the webcam, so what's with laptops and smartphones getting different treatment. I'm genuinely interested.
I do not buy laptops with built-in webcams, as they are unnecessary. I also open them up and remove the microphone (since it's impossible to get a laptop without one). If I need to use a microphone I can plug one in.
Guess what, I also turn off my home router when I am not home actually using the Internet, and I also turn off all of my other computing gear when I am not using it. Nothing is left on for someone to pry at while I am away.
Would it be a good idea to stick a small piece of aluminum foil under the tape? Not a huge amount, just enough to cover the lens. It might not even have to stick out from under the tape.
I ask this because not all Webcams have good infrared filtering, and tape by itself often lets IR through. Aluminum foil should theoretically take care of that. But do modern built-in Webcams still have IR filtering bad enough to even make this necessary?
I've taped over the webcam (or not plugged one in, in the first place) ever since 1996. The problem is that even if you trust absolutely everything, all it takes is one time for you to forget it's on and your private bits are on the internet, and you can never take that back.
"Wait, do you not?" - Sterling Archer.
I can't help myself, but it looks kind of strange to me. Why did he covered camera with white tape and microphone with black tape? It looks like he want us to see it. Does someone else have such weird feeling about it? ...Sorry for my $hitty english.
Comey just doesn't want the NSA spying on him. It's a vicious circle.
i make the point of appearing naked in front of any cameras i have in my home which i know to be off. if someone is recording without my knowledge, at least they'll suffer.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
I specifically order hardware without any webcam. This has several advantages:
1. Less cost
2. Better privacy
3. Better features from the external cam when I need one
As for the microphone... One snip does the trick.
And after all that, my phone gives me up with the added bonus of GPS coordinates.
"On an unrelated note, it appears, Zuckerberg uses Mozilla's Thunderbird as his primary email client."
Why so many 'unrelated notes' below the summary?
We are perfectly capable of derailing the discussion ourselves without prompting from the editors....
What makes people think that's his computer anyway? He is at Instagram HQ. In open office. With bunch of books on the table.
I would say it's more likely that he was at Instagram HQ to take the picture and found a good place to take the shot. Someone else was sitting there, so he just moved away for a bit to let the CEO have his picture taken.
Most laptops have an LED next to the camera to tell you when it's on. So far as I've seen, they're connected at the hardware level (yes I've investigated this deeply in trying to work around a Linux power management bug). So if a piece of malware activates your camera, they'll just get a quick glance of you taking action appropriately.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
The camera isn't particularly worrisome to me, but the microphones are. And it's really hard to reliably disable the built-in microphones on laptops, phones and tablets.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
If you really want to see a fat, middle aged guy playing Minecraft or CSS or looking over star charts then feel free to try to hack my cam. I can just send you a selfie for the same purposes as there's really nothing worth seeing.
lenovo 12-80401 ? has a cover built in, best webcam that I never leave plugged in!
I only had a mic on my computer. Already removed it lol...
Tho I use linux.
The old-school Silicon Graphics web - the Zeye 1.3 - had a little blue plastic shutter to cover the lens. Picture http://www.retrotechnology.com...
Disclaimer: I consider myself quite paranoid. I have a PhD in Cryptography and I've been involved in IT security for many years now. Still, I don't tape my webcam. Basically because of the following:
If your OS is compromised to the point that someone can turn on your webcam, that is the last thing you have to worry about.
Seriously, think about it. I would be much more worried about people reading my emails and recording my passwords and keystrokes than being caught watching porn or picking my nose. Even the microphone is a worse threat IMHO. Without considering that probably the best way to take picture of you is by compromising your phone camera - and that one doesn't really make sense to tape, as long as you care about taking pictures.
That said, well, I keep my laptop closed all the time and I use it mostly as a desktop, connected to an external monitor :) and the external USB webcam I have is constantly pointed to the ceiling unless I need it.
And of course I would really like to see an hardware switch for the microphone and webcam.
The drivers for the microphone and camera won't work.
I work for a worldwide corporation. All company-issued laptops not only have the webcam taped over, the drivers are removed from the system.
I tape over the webcams at home too.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
I have a usb webcam that stays unplugged unless I need it.
But then, i have 2 tablets that have cameras & mics on it.
Fuck.
My 3DS has a mic & cameras on it.
Fuck.
I don't have enough tape.
Be seeing you...
Why should we really care what Zuck does? Do what's right for you!
At least he's not using Windows 10 Spyware Edition.
Did a contracting gig at HSBC and helped move over 30% of the office staff to work from home (so the company could sell off real estate and make it easier to layoff people), very common site on the laptops that came in from women was a piece of yellow Post-It note placed over the camera. Half of the cameras didn't even work due to Lenovo's shitty X-series build quality, but that's a different matter.
Linux isn't secure without GRSecurity patched kernel. ... and the linux kernel devs and the grsecurity devs do NOT get along.
Let's face it, if you know what you are doing you will have purchased an enterprise grade laptop and opted not to have the camera and microphone installed because said manufacturer (Dell of course) knows that you may need to work in high security environments.
Why laptops don't come with build in option to manually close camera and microphone?
Mark Zuckerberg, David Schwimmer and Sarah Jessica Parker walk into a bar.
The bartender says "Did you all get fired or something?", and they say "No".
So he asks "So, did a relative die?", and they say "No".
"Well, did your team lose?" "No!".
"Well what's with all the long faces then?"
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Never. They stopped putting physical shutters over the cameras to save a fraction of a penny, I can't see them adding something even more expensive than that back in.
Don't use tape, and your computer is hacked and you LOSE!
Use tape and your computer DOESN'T get hacked, and you've lost NOTHING!
Use tape and your computer gets hacked, and you WIN!
So tell me, you mostly sad remnants of a Slashdot audience, what does logic tell you is the conclusion of the above FACTS? And why is the ordianry person told (especially by organs like Slashdot) to ignore such logic? No wonder Slashdot's masters want to stop teaching algebra to American school students. The dumber the sheeple the better.
The light is not always hard wired to function with the camera.
On my old Sony, the light could be completely disabled depending on the driver I used.
Having tape on your glasses used to be one of the true signs of the nerd. Apparently that has shifted to tape on your webcam as the nerd spoor.
I put a piece of paper towel over the web cam, held with a piece of electrical tape over the back of the laptop.. No goop on the screen or camera lens. Camera is blocked.
Your phone can spy on you too so I guess they get a good look at the inside of my pocket.
Thank you -- that got me to do it. :D
A year or two ago I saw a description of a "telescreen" variant on an LED or LCD flat display. Some of the pixels in each cluster were light sourcing, but some were light-sensing. They had individual lenses, like an insect eye, spaced very slightly differently from the pixels themselves so the field of view fanned out appropriately (say, for a virtual viewer's eye being located a couple feet behind the screen).
The result is a flatscreen that is also a camera. Handy for videoconfrencing, as looking at the image on the screen also means looking at the camera. Handy for construction: No separate camera needed, simplifying construction and reducing the amount of non-screen bezel around the screen.
Impossible to put a piece of tape over it, though. You'd have to intercept the wiring or install your own code.
Even intercepting the wiring might become impossible, as the signal both ways could be encrypted under the guise of video copy protection. Cut the inbound wires and the screen stops displaying, too, while the encryption makes it effectively impossible to separate the inbound video from the inbound side of the outbound video's DRM handshaking.
Tivoization makes software tweaking almost impossible. Things like Intel's AMT's management engines, or AMD's equivalent means even if you could replace the software you're still hosed.
Add a piezo (or other MEMS device) sensor to detect the flexing of the screen and it's a microphone, too. Orwell's telescreen is created.
(Heck: You could make it a drop-in replacement for a NORMAL screen and the spooks could install it on a laptop that DOES have a camera and microphone for you to cover up. Use the official ones for the user features while reserving the screen for the clandestine and the victim thinks he's shut it off while the spooks gleefully watch and listen.)
The 1984 scenarios may be a few decades late. But now we HAVE the technology!
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
This is a new idea to some people? This has been done for years, for basically as long as laptops and cellphones started coming with cameras.
With so many people taping these cameras it seems like more laptops should be made without cameras.
dont buy shit with a web cam built in and you dont have to deal with it-tho that means no Xbox and smart tv
But using a real email client, instead of following all those sheeple that use a web browser for that, now that would give him my respect, for the first time...
I had a discussion once with a friend who has both a Masters and PhD in electrical engineering. He was working at a company and told me that they had technology for 'eavesdropping' that he would've thought was technically impossible before working there. I'm not surprised by someone using tape and no longer think it's paranoid to use it.
No need to do so, if you only run trusted software. If you need to fear that something uses your webcam without your permission, you have bigger problems than the webcam.
And the webcam is boring. What do you expect to see when secretly recording? Some grimaces of the user, who doesn't know he's filmed. Maybe you see him naked. Very thrilling, because there are no naked people on the internet!
The problem is the mic. While an image of you is utterly boring, your conversations are very interesting. And taping the mic is hard, if you want to make sure that no sound gets in anymore (as some programs may better reconstruct your words from a low sound than you would expect).
So the mic is something, where it may be a good idea to cut the cable and buy some usb mic for when you need it. It has better quality anyway.
You should tape over the camera on your laptop and on your phone. There is no reason why these peripherals should not be connected through a physical switch on your devices.
I do not know why such devices do not exist. You can imagine that people do not care enough for manufacturers to do this. But then you see and read about all the people who are doing this and wonder why manufacturer's do not target this section of the market. I for one, would consider a phone with this option to be more valuable than the typical one without this privacy option.
I suspect it is much easier to eavesdrop on devices that do not provide and audio/video on/off switch. So what market are these manufacturer's targeting?
Duct tape (with a foam backing) over the camera
Physically disabled the in-built microphone (either cut a few wires, or soldering gun, or physically destroy the diaphragm)
You might think no one wants to see that but...
Probably they just want to take stats of when and how often.
Sadly, a Libertarian cannot force his views on another, and freedom cannot spread as does the cancer known as religion.
I've had tape over my camera for years ever since there used to be a sub reddit just listing live streams of hacked web cameras. Even if you aren't a celeb, people might just do it cause it's each to do.
The tape thing eventually started to leave gunk all over my web camera too, so I invented this web camera cover. It's flat so it won't block your laptop from closing, and really easy to add on. Here's a link to the product page: http://cambaid.com/cambaid-product