this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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Get a laptip with a real hardware switch for the cam and the mic. Best peace of mind knowing that they're really off. Neither tape, nor the non-electrical built-in plastic sliders do that.
You still have to trust the manufacturer that it really turns the webcam off, not just the webcam light.
Unless you have a framework, and can remove the bezel and confirm that they work!
I'm really happy with my new framework's switches, I actually trust them for once! I went to find a thing on how they work to post here:
"(They) saw the mention of the switches and that they are optical somewhere, but can’t remember to quote the source.
As far as I can tell each switch is a U channel with a light emitter on one side, and a detector on the other. The part you move on the bezel just breaks the light beam. This creates a electronic on/off hardware switch.
Using an actual physical switch would tend to be a source of an intermittent connection over time. Hence the use of optical technology. Same thought process for the screen open switch being a Hall Effect sensor, which can work through a cover."
Open-source hardware to the rescue! So you CAN verify it.
It probably can be inspected
Yes, but most won't.
I mean, someone will do for every model. That would be enough to ensure security. If manufacturer faked it, and one in a thousand customers found it, then it will be a news or a lawsuit
Hardware switches physically cut power to the device in question and you can take it apart and verify. There is no trust involved.
99.999% will not take it apart and verify. They will just "nice, a physical switch". There is a lot of trust involved.
Sure beats literally no protection which is what most laptops have. I have a switch and sometimes forget it's off and my webcam/mic definitely don't work, on any OS.
They don't neccessarily need to, you can pretty much always just look at reviews. Now you can make a point about trusting reviewers, but all that is still better than trusting the manufacturer or microsoft.
You're right though, there is trust involved, but only if you don't verify things yourself.
I have never seen a review opening a laptop to check if the hardware switch is really that. Please, link to a reviewsite that does that
I'd like a proper hardware light. Something physical such that the camera cannot send the image back to the board without the light being on. And yes, a physical cutout switch would definitely be nice.
Either buy a sticker cover with a slider or get lenovo laptops that have that builtin; even though the slider is confusionary since when it's closed it's a red dot. Im sure that there must be other brands that integrate it as well
The problem with those is that it's often just a piece of plastic, so the microphone isn't cut off from power. The webcam sees noching, but sound is unaffected.
Hackers won't have much to blackmail me, I fap completely silently.
It's more about privacy. Windows might access your mic to get more data on you for advertising, wouldn't be anything new.
I am joking of course. I am a privacy freak myself:
There is something about the webcam switch on the Lenovo from work, that I like better than the Framework: The switch also physically blocks the camera. It makes me feel more safe and it's actually much more intuitive to understand when it is disable. On Framework, the switch shows either red or black, but I never know what is enable and disable. Is it red for "Careful, it's active !" or red for "Disable" ? (It's Red=Disable, Black=Active).
That’s how my Dell work machine is. The switch slides some red plastic over the lens.