5 ms·
Minor point, but since the laptops in question are Macbooks, there is most certainly a visible indicator; a little green light next to the camera comes on when
by vault_ 17y ago
Minor point, but since the laptops in question are Macbooks, there is most certainly a visible indicator; a little green light next to the camera comes on when it is active.
Overall, I agree with you though, there really are no safeguards to stop administrators from abusing their power. They only thing that I can think of to help curtail this sort of abuse is restricting the use of their remote control software to the networks explicitly provided by the school.
- jacquesm 17y agoIs that light hardware or software controlled (in other words, does it come on as soon as the camera is powered up or is it a function of the driver to enable the light ? Can that be bypassed ? Or would you need to modify the hardware for that ?)
- vault_ 17y agoI'm not sure, because I haven't really looked at any of the api's, but I'm pretty sure that it's hardware controlled. Internally it's hooked up via USB, and none of the software I've seen has used the camera without the light on (including non-Apple software).
- protomyth 17y agoOn the Apple's I have it is hardwired with no API - Power Camera = Power Light.
- wgj 17y agoOne of the articles on this, which I can't cite because I didn't save the link, said parents had complained to the school IT department that the webcam indicator would light at strange times. According to the article, the school dismissed the complaints as not an issue. This was all before the current situation emerged.
- GHFigs 17y agoa little green light next to the camera comes on when it is active Is this true when a single still image is captured? It isn't clear from the reporting whether the cameras were used to capture video or still images.