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That's a good point. I think it varies from person to person. Part of my reason for blocking video is I can never figure out when videoconferencing tools will

That's a good point. I think it varies from person to person. Part of my reason for blocking video is I can never figure out when videoconferencing tools will default to transmitting video, which I never want, before I have a way to turn it off. Also, I don't think I'm a high profile enough target that somebody would bother sifting through everything I say in front of my laptop for something interesting. Capturing images every minute or so and looking for something embarrassing (someone showing lots of skin) seems much easier for malware to automate.

trevyn 8y ago
>I don't think I'm a high profile enough target that somebody would bother sifting through everything I say in front of my laptop for something interesting. The threat model is closer to automated transcription, global history search, and parallel construction.
- smelendez 8y ago
  I think that would be hard to pull off in the US, where I live. There are enough paranoid infosec people that would spot the data transmission or CPU usage. But certainly no harm done in muffling or ripping out a mic if you're concerned!
  - r00fus 8y ago
    Not if it’s intermittent / on-demand and hiding within existing traffic.
  - pdkl95 8y ago
    Why would anybody bother trying to hide traffic? Lots of apps already waste bandwidth and CPU to exfiltrate a wide variety of data, often sending it straight to Facebook[1]. They simply relabeled it "analytics", [1] https://media.ccc.de/v/35c3-9941-how_facebook_tracks_you_on_android https://media.ccc.de/v/35c3-9941-how_facebook_tracks_you_on_...
- Pocketknife 8y ago
  I am amazed at the general level of understanding regarding this sort of thing. People simply don't know enough, on average, to even make an informed decision about this stuff. They think the FBI is gonna sit and watch or listen to a recording. They have no idea this is gonna sit as text in a database forever to be searched against later.
TrinaryWorksToo 8y ago
There are startups that automate listening to devices. See www.deepgram.com

trevyn 8y ago

>I don't think I'm a high profile enough target that somebody would bother sifting through everything I say in front of my laptop for something interesting. The threat model is closer to automated transcription, global history search, and parallel construction.

smelendez 8y ago
I think that would be hard to pull off in the US, where I live. There are enough paranoid infosec people that would spot the data transmission or CPU usage. But certainly no harm done in muffling or ripping out a mic if you're concerned!
- r00fus 8y ago
  Not if it’s intermittent / on-demand and hiding within existing traffic.
- pdkl95 8y ago
  Why would anybody bother trying to hide traffic? Lots of apps already waste bandwidth and CPU to exfiltrate a wide variety of data, often sending it straight to Facebook[1]. They simply relabeled it "analytics", [1] https://media.ccc.de/v/35c3-9941-how_facebook_tracks_you_on_android https://media.ccc.de/v/35c3-9941-how_facebook_tracks_you_on_...
Pocketknife 8y ago
I am amazed at the general level of understanding regarding this sort of thing. People simply don't know enough, on average, to even make an informed decision about this stuff. They think the FBI is gonna sit and watch or listen to a recording. They have no idea this is gonna sit as text in a database forever to be searched against later.

TrinaryWorksToo 8y ago

There are startups that automate listening to devices. See www.deepgram.com