The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam (npr.org) 202
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."
Must have something to hide (Score:5, Insightful)
The only people who would object to such surveillance are those who have something to hide.
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Just because you aren't doing something wrong doesn't mean you don't have something to hide.
Example, many companies prohibit cameras and devices with cameras (phones, tablets, laptops, etc) in their offices and other facilities, This is to help protect their intellectual property from being seen by the competition.
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Well, you're one penguin who just got Whoooooshed.
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seeing that people say that all the time with a straight face, and there were no hints that it was a joke?
No hints other than this being the guy who probably says it the most and the boss of most of the other people who say it. If in doubt, assume sarcasm.
Everyone has something to hide. (Score:5, Insightful)
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. [wsj.com] 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.
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FTFA linked above:
Sometimes legislators know when they make false distinctions based on technology. An "anti-cyberbullying" proposal is making its way through Congress, prompted by the tragic case of a 13-year-old girl driven to suicide by the mother of a neighbor posing as a teenage boy and posting abusive messages on MySpace. The law would prohibit using the Internet to "coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person." Imagine a law that tried to apply this control of speech to letters, editorials or lobbying.
AC, I believe you are guilty of a felony, expect the police at your door any minute.
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Or the video of you wanking while facebook on another tab (than the porn) has your 12 yo niece's profile up.
There are many ways in which things you do can be used to destroy you.
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At that level if they spill secrets they are above the law - so much for Magna Carta and all the rest. Manning rots in jail for the same crime that Petraeus committed.
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I thought most intelligent people did that (Score:5, Insightful)
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That would probably add 25 cents of cost to a $500 device.
But yes, yes they should.
Re:I thought most intelligent people did that (Score:5, Insightful)
That would probably add 25 cents of cost to a $500 device.
It would cost far more than that just to handle all the tech support calls from people complaining that their cameras and microphones don't work.
But yes, yes they should.
No, they shouldn't. I trust black tape far more than I trust a mechanical switch that someone else installed.
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I trust black tape far more than I trust a mechanical switch that someone else installed.
Same here - but occasionally it's a problem. The black tape doesn't visibly stand out against the black bezel on my laptop, so it's easy to forget the tape is there on those two or three times a year I need to use the darn thing...
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Everyone knows, you peel off one of the dozens of stickers that the vendor installed, then you place it over the camera.
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You could use duct tape or aluminum tape. Or don't get a black laptop.
Re:black tape vs microphone (Score:5, Funny)
How does black tape stop a microphone from working?
You put it on your lips.
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It used to be that WiFi and Bluetooth came with mechanical switches on the laptop.
I love mechanical switches - sure, they wear out and are a pain to replace, but unless you have teleporting electrons, they kill the attached devices.
They should make a comeback.
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Except those switches for WiFi just send a signal to the WiFi card. That's it. It's up to the WiFi card to actually do something with that signal. The mini PCIe slot has a line for that switch - the switch just brings the line high or low and it's up to the card and firmware/driver to actually do something with it.
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Yeap, I've experienced a Linux laptop that didn't care one bit about that switch. Wifi worked either way. Is more of a curiosity as I pretty much leave that switch set ON at all times. I like the idea of a blinder that physically moves in front of the camera, but it'll probably add .1 mm to the thickness and that makes it a total no-go nowadays.
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"I like the idea of a blinder that physically moves in front of the camera, but it'll probably add .1 mm to the thickness and that makes it a total no-go nowadays."
A decade ago, Logitech (among others) sold webcams with flip-down privacy covers. They flopped because noone bought them.
A decade ago, several laptop makers sold models with sliding covers on their webcams. They flopped because noone bought them.
Perhaps these ideas might return.
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My wifi switch already has this as long as wifi is on light is lit flip the switch light goes off wifi quits working.
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My wifi switch already has this as long as wifi is on light is lit flip the switch light goes off wifi quits working.
Is there anything to let you know if the light stops working?
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Well the light wouldn't be on when I switched the wifi on.
But I suppose its not really the same as wifi is on 99% of the time so it would be more noticeable if its light didn't work than it would if the light on one of the built in webcams on one of my laptops didn't work as I don't remember checking to see if the webcams themselves even work.
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Electronics can be hacked, but not physics.
However, it seems that physically closing camera is in the same league as a strong encryption. I never saw it on any device, and I am sure it will remain this way.
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I have a Dell all-in-one desktop at work that has a manual camera shutter. Wish that were standard.
Same goes for microphone, wifi, and USB read-only sticks.
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That's how you know if your remote has died. If you change the batteries and it's still not working then you point it at your cell phone's camera and check and see if the IR is detected. It has come in handy several times.
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Because I saw somebody smarter than I am
Comey is acknowledging that *everyone* is smarter than him.
I found his honesty refreshing.
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mechanical shutter/slide for the camera, hardware disconnect for the microphone.
physical switches are not protection (Score:3)
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 n
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Why not just remove the drivers or disable the device by the drivers? I suppose it's theoretically possible that they have an operating system underneath that's still able to turn on the camera but that seems a bit unlikely. Just disable the microphone and camera. It might also make a handy use for a 3D printer to cover the camera slot.
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How will that work for microphone? Close the hole? Would it really block all audio input?
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And you would trust that switch?
I wouldn't.
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They can make sure the LED doesn't turn on and that the camera/microphone is "disabled".. until a specific set of commands is received via the firmware.
You need to trust the manufacturer before you can trust their off switch.
That's why a mechanical switch is required or else it's a completely useless exercise. You can verify that the circuit is interrupted, and there's nothing software can do to circumvent this. No trust is required.
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That's why a mechanical switch is required or else it's a completely useless exercise. You can verify that the circuit is interrupted
Only if you open the case and use a multimeter.
and there's nothing software can do to circumvent this.
Yes there is, if the hardware designer is motivated to snoop on you. A trivial example would be a double-pole switch, with the "off" pole selecting firmware-accessible circuitry. What you can verify, without disassembling the BIOS, is an opaque object.
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If a hardware designer is that motivated to snoop on you, then they probably wouldn't bother installing a fake physical kill switch. After all, the current status quo is no hardware switch at all. Do you seriously imagine that they're going to add a hardware kill switch, but then secretly add a method for software to bypass it? It really doesn't make a lot of sense [youtube.com].
For me, I'm more concerned about the actual, documented cases [computerworld.com] of spy software, malware, or simply badly designed systems used to snoop on peo
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Do you seriously imagine that they're going to add a hardware kill switch, but then secretly add a method for software to bypass it?
Sure: if it has a switch, it may con the customer out of going the tape route.
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That wouldn't actually be that difficult - most digital sensors are somewhat sensitive in the infrared, so with the right kind of plastic, they could set it up so it looks black and closed to the user, but the sensor can still easily see something through it.
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Reminds me of the night vision 'scope I have around somewhere. I was checking it out one night and thought the image, though reasonably clear, was somewhat dimmer than usual. Then I realized I'd left the plastic lens cap on.
Hmmm....
Metal lens caps FTW.
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High quality satire (Score:5, Insightful)
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!
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And he confuses "secrecy" and "privacy".
Secret - criminals are secretly planning a crime.
Privacy - Your daughter getting dressed in her bedroom.
There is NOTHING wrong with "absolute privacy". The government needs to put more effort into their job and not just lobby to get more access to webcams.
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And if it were Joe Sixpack the FBI were investigating and his taping-over of the webcam annoyed the FBI, he'd be looking at a raft of charges like various (and possibly multiple) flavors of 'obstruction', interference in an investigation, evidence tampering, etc etc. An imaginative prosecutor/DA could likely come up with many more.
Even if found innocent
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I think we should sue Apple... to force them to go remove the tape from his webcam.
Webcam & Microphones (Score:3)
Re:Webcam & Microphones (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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I know that a lot of devices have USB ports, but not all of them do (including my Samsung tablet). I do not believe that they are to be found on iPads either.
I do believe in talking to people in person, not car
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iPads support external microphones. Some really good ones, in fact.
But in any case, as I clearly stated, I was talking about monitors and laptops there, not ipads and phones.
When I moved on to phones (and for that, you can read tablet in general if you like), I suggested destroying the mic and then using bluetooth and/or wifi. And if your tablet has no ability to handle such features (the iPad definitely does), then if this is important to you, just switch tablets.
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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.
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Okay, that solves the phone problem - but what about the fillings in my teeth?
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Dentures, my brother. Or sister. You end up with really nice teeth, and it totally quiets the voices.
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I hope you mean dipping it in artificial pancake syrup because as a Canadian I find the waste of real maple syrup to be appalling.
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Oh, it's not a waste. Step two is to hold the phone in your mouth at all times.
More common than you would think. (Score:2)
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.
Re:More common than you would think. (Score:5, Informative)
most computers with a built-in mic use software control to select between audio input sources, based on detecting the presence of that plug in the mic jack. And as with the cameras, that has the possibility of a software override. I have NO problem recording from my built-in mic while i have a mic plugged into my comuter - I just go into sound prefs and switch mics, because the software defaults to external when present.
And that green light that shows your webcam is on, that may also be under software control. Some manufacturers run that light off the power that runs the CCD etc in the camera when it's in use, and others turn it on (or OFF) in software, so it's not necessarily an accurate indication of camera activity.
Who doesn't? (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, are there really people who don't put tape on their web cams?
Re:Who doesn't? (Score:5, Informative)
I don't, but then I make sure Dell sends me the SKU that the DoD orders when I order my laptops. You know, the one that is camera delete. Every major manufacturer has a SKU for the DoD that eliminates the camera and has a physical switch that disables the wireless chip, and the DoD tests to make sure the wireless is really disabled. If the company sales rep says he doesn't know anything about it tell him to talk to the DoD sales rep.
Yes, they will sell to non-DoD customers. You would think the head of the FBI would do this too.
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I don't, but then I make sure Dell sends me the SKU that the DoD orders when I order my laptops
Sure, but since it's a SKU for government purchase, your laptop will cost $25,000.
Re:Who doesn't? (Score:5, Funny)
Bitch I run Linux on my laptop!
If the NSA can get the camera to work in the first place, then more power to them!
Re:Who doesn't? (Score:5, Insightful)
Personal anecdote: I have installed Linux Mint on a fair number of different semi-modern laptops over the last few years. On every single one of them, everything has simply worked, out of the box, including webcams, networking (wired as well as wireless), bluetooth, sound and graphics.
So, I get the joke, but it doesn't have much bearing on reality these days, in my experience.
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Actually that is my strategy too. I run linux and my life is essentially on my laptop. If you can read my camera, I am already way more fucked than I would like. At this point, I don't care if they take a picture of me.
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sudo modprobe -r uvcvideo should do the trick. Hmm... Yeah, you can push that to run on boot and then just enable it when you need it. For the mic? I dunno. I guess you can tear it out of the kernel. There's the master volume thingy and you should be able to switch it off in that. Well, not off. You put it on mute. alasomething-or-other? I dunno, Google probably does. I'm not gonna go digging through books and my bash_history to find it.
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I use a square of the sticky part of a yellow sticky note.
Is it news? (Score:5, Interesting)
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? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Is it news? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you don't use your webcam, you'd be stupid not to cover it with tape. Comey isn't doing it because he knows the government can use it to spy on him as TFA and summary implies. He's doing it because he knows the emperor has no clothes and anyone can use it to spy on him.
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He's doing it because he knows the emperor has no clothes and anyone can use it to spy on him.
Which drives home the point that anytime you open a backdoor for the government, it will inevitably be found and used by others.
Re:Is it news? (Score:5, Interesting)
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!
Who doesn't do this? (Score:2)
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".
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You'd think there'd be some demand for 3D-printable clip-on lens covers for popular webcams, laptops, etc.
Last time I looked (a while back) I couldn't find such.
proof he is uneducated in tech... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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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.
The FBI Director is a lawyer by training. It's been obvious for years he's not particularly technically savvy.
Frankly, while I realize he's not out-and-out stupid - he doesn't seem to be the brightest bulb in the box.
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Any HP or Dell business class has a high security or DOD model with that deleted.
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"so physically disabling it isn't an option."
Maybe for those that dont know electronics. It is trivial to install a physical disable switch, phone and laptop makers just dont want to give you this ability. Less than $0.12 in cost to add a simple switch to 100% hackerproof your microphone.
I use Black Electric tape for this... (Score:2)
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.
Ah, that explains it! (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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Naw, if it was broken, he'd'a used Duct Tape...
I use Linux, my WebCam Works (Score:2)
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.
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When an attacker has enough access to your system to switch on your web cam, an unloaded driver won't be too much of a hurdle.
Me too (Score:2)
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.
Smartphone (Score:2)
Insanity (Score:2)
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That was before people started broadcasting their boring life 24/7.
Re:Tape is messy (Score:5, Interesting)
"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.
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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. Y
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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.
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