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Am I the only one that is not worried at all about the camera and super concerned about microphones ? The camera may see me staring into the screen, woo hoo. Th
by ddalex 2y ago
Am I the only one that is not worried at all about the camera and super concerned about microphones ? The camera may see me staring into the screen, woo hoo. The microphones will hear everything I discuss, incl. confidential information.
There is no physical microphone cover there, is it ?
- klausa 2y agoModern (2019-ish? forwards?) MacBooks have physical disconnect for microphones when the lid is shut.
- jack_arleth 2y agoFramework laptops have the same solution.
- jdblair 2y agoThe Framework has a physical microphone switch next to the camera switch.
- djtango 2y agoYes I really wish we could have a physical switch for device mic
- ykonstant 2y agoAs someone who often speaks gibberish to myself due to ptsd, if someone recorded me in my room they could convince anyone I am utterly insane, beyond any hope. It is a great way to blackmail people with coprolalia or other verbal tics. And yeah, if they had access to my webcam, they would just see a guy staring into the screen or walking back and forth in the room.
- chmod775 2y agoEh, random utterances are more common than you think. Especially amongst older people. Most will know at least a couple family members who tend to mutter random things to themselves. Nobody who is themselves sane is going to judge another for random crap they say when they think themselves alone.
- lukan 2y agoSound is usually more sensitive, yes. But even if there is a physical switch on the laptop, only very exotic smartphones have them. Also, loudspeakers can act as microphones, too. In other words, paranoia gets exhausting in modern times. (And my smartphone has a replacable battery for that reason to at least sometimes enjoy potentially surveillance free time)
- MarcusE1W 2y agoMy Pinephone has a switch for the microphone and also my Pinebook Pro laptop. But I also would agree that this is exotic hardware.
- lukan 2y ago"But I also would agree that this is exotic hardware." No shit. How is the current state btw? I suppose still not ready to be a daily driver to replace my normal phone?
- ri0t 2y ago> I suppose still not ready to be a daily driver to replace my normal phone? I'd say that depends on your definition of daily driver and/or how much compromises you're willing to take. I occasionally see members at my larger hackerspace running around with those or other seemingly "unfit" hardware and not complain too much about it ;)
- megous 2y agoKernel is in "maintenance and focussed on upstreaming" mode for a few years already, after getting nearly full HW support about 2-3 years ago. As for phone feature, reliability of that depends on reliability of firmware of the modem, which was always shaky.
- whatevaa 2y agoWell i have Pinebook Pro and it's pretty much abandonware, pine doesn't do any software and OSS lacks maintainers, nobody want's it, e-waste laptop. Take it as you will.
- camgunz 2y agoA picture of you with the subject "I know what you were looking at when I took this picture of you" is pretty good blackmail--I think there's an active campaign doing this even.
- ddalex 2y agoThis would've been blackmail 20 years ago.... nowadays it's just "of course you know, I shared my OF likes publicly", will not even raise an eyebrow; or perhaps I'm living in too bohemian society circles
- jeltz 2y agoExcellent blackmail against teenagers. Pointless against me as an adult.
- throw16180339 2y agoI received a phishing email from this campaign or a similar one several months ago. The email opened with my name and contained a Google Maps photo of a house where I'd lived 8 years before. The author claimed to have hacked my laptop and captured videos of me doing embarrassing things. They would release the videos unless I paid them $1000 in Bitcoin. I searched and it's an extremely common scam, but I did panic for a few minutes.
- spacemanspiff01 2y agoI honestly like the physical switch on the framework, which disconnects the microphone/webcam fully.
- ashoeafoot 2y agoYour speakers are a microphone ..
- Sporktacular 2y agoYeah, but they aren't an input device with an amp wired in the right direction and an A/D converter to read it out.
- dfox 2y agoIf there is a discrete PA in the speaker path, then not. But I would not be that surprised if there is a single chip codec + PA combination that can conect an internal ADC to pins that are primarily meant as PA outputs of the integrated PA.
- benj111 2y agoI seem to recall reading somewhere that 'everything' is a thermometer, on the basis that many things behave differently at different temperatures. You can also use an LED as a light sensor. and I also came across a YT vid of a console that used a piezo electric speaker for motion sensing. I wonder if you could use a track pad to pick up sound.
- michaelt 2y agoThe camera privacy issue arises because teenagers and college kids often have their computer in their bedroom. So a webcam hack that lets them watch my 16 year old daughter study would also let them watch her sleeping, getting dressed, and making out with her boyfriend.
- pmontra 2y agoIt's not only a teenager or college kid issue. I've seen adults with a computer in their bedroom because it's a kind of private space where they don't expect anybody to inadvertently bump into it. My laptop is in my bedroom in winter, right now, because it's one of the smallest rooms and I can heat it easily. I use it in other parts of the house in the other seasons. I do have a sliding cover on the camera. I bought it years ago. The main issue is the microphone.
- dghughes 2y agoAnd the true or not Google or other apps listening then you see ads based on that conversation. I think it's true since far too many times obscure things I've spoken about appear in ads soon after the conversation. So yes I'd say a mic blocking feature you can confirm is working, blocking, is needed.
- ch4s3 2y ago> I think it's true since far too many times obscure things I've spoken about appear in ads soon after the conversation People have been making claims like this since at least the early 90s, about TV then, and no one ever credibly claims to have worked on something like this. I've worked with purchased ad data and I've never seen this data or anything that implies that it exists. It seems far more likely that its a trick of memory. You ignore most ads you see, but you remember ones that relate to odd topics that interest you.
- wsintra2022 2y agoI agree with this sentiment, people talk about x product then realise they are seeing ads for x product. Most likely the ads were there first and the people only start talking about it cause the ads have been working.
- ch4s3 2y agoThat’s pretty much it. You see an obscure ad without realizing it and have a related conversation later. Then when you see the ad again and make note of it, it feels strange.
- megous 2y agoYeah, we're well past a point where "phones" have NPUs powerful enough to locally process "sensor" input and produce decontextualized probabilties of potential interests. It's going to happen sooner or later and people will accept it, just like they accepted training of AI models on copyrighted works without permission, or SaaS, or AWS/PaaS, or sending all their photos to Apple/Google (for "backup").
- _joel 2y agoDisable it all in the BIOS?
- pmoriarty 2y ago"Am I the only one that is not worried at all about the camera and super concerned about microphones ? The camera may see me staring into the screen, woo hoo. The microphones will hear everything I discuss, incl. confidential information." All phones are suspect. We should go back to only carrying pagers.
- shermantanktop 2y agoWhen I have to do faux-2FA auth using numeric codes sent by text or email, I sometimes catch myself quietly saying the numbers. A microphone would by quite handy for an attacker, even if they couldn’t see all my network traffic.