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Mark Zuckerberg Tapes Over His Webcam. Should You? (theguardian.com)

Posted by msmash on from the growing-trend dept.

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.

4 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Light Sensor... by invictusvoyd · · Score: 5, Funny

    Someone should put a tape over Mark Zuckerberg.

  2. Laptop and tablet makers need to add a switch by hwstar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  3. Alternate solution by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Funny

    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
  4. Do this -- and support the EFF at the same time! by Sir+Holo · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.