{"id":2342,"date":"2019-03-15T07:00:29","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T11:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/langa.com\/?p=2342"},"modified":"2019-03-14T15:05:14","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T19:05:14","slug":"a-reader-asks-is-it-enough-to-disable-the-driver-for-the-camera-on-my-laptop-and-to-put-tape-over-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/15\/a-reader-asks-is-it-enough-to-disable-the-driver-for-the-camera-on-my-laptop-and-to-put-tape-over-it\/","title":{"rendered":"A reader asks: “Is it enough to disable the camera driver for my laptop, and to block the lens?”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reader Steven Clifford Cohen asks: “I disabled the driver for the camera on my laptop. I also put tape over it. Is that enough?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enough to prevent video-based snooping, sure. But opaque tape alone would do that; a camera can’t see through an opaque object, period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, if you’re really worried about remote-snooping, consider the microphone, too; with its own audio drivers, and its own physical components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if you’re really, really<\/u><\/em> worried about remote-snooping, consider that there are enough non-obvious ways to snoop that you might want to crawl inside a Faraday cage and close the door behind you. For example, researchers have found ways to use the vibration-sensors in hard drives as microphones. (See Researchers Turn Hard Drives Into Covert Listening Devices<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the odds of being randomly snooped by a video or audio voyeur are pretty remote. It might be different if you’re a public figure, or are involved in some activity or dispute that might tempt others to specifically target you for snooping; but for normal people in normal circumstances, simply blocking an unused lens is probably more than sufficient security against this type of snooping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(PS: If you’d like something a little nicer than tape, you can buy sliding plastic webcam privacy covers for around a buck or so each; examples<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
For $1\/ea or so, you can add a thin, sliding lens cover to your laptop.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Permalink: https:\/\/langa.com\/?p=2342<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reader Steven Clifford Cohen asks: “I disabled the driver for the camera on my laptop. I also put tape over it. Is that enough?” Enough to prevent video-based snooping, sure. But opaque tape alone would do that; a camera can’t see through an opaque object, period. However, if you’re really worried about remote-snooping, consider the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,10,12,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-reader-asks","category-science-and-tech","category-smartphones","category-windows"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paaiox-BM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2228,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/06\/a-reader-asks-will-my-water-spilled-laptop-be-ok\/","url_meta":{"origin":2342,"position":0},"title":"A reader asks: “Will my water-spilled laptop be OK?","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-03-06","format":false,"excerpt":"Reader Emily Long sent in this urgent note --- from her smartphone, I presume! \"A couple of hours ago I spilled water on my laptop, I've turned it off, dried the keyboard and it is currently sitting keyboard down while I wait for any possible water to drain out. Will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2570,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/10\/a-reader-asks-my-laptop-intermittently-shuts-down-on-its-own-whats-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":2342,"position":1},"title":"A reader asks: “My laptop intermittently shuts down on its own. What’s wrong?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-04-10","format":false,"excerpt":"Reader Janet Ybarra wrote: \"I have a laptop which intermittently shuts down on its own, apparently from overheating. What would be the problem and what can I do?\" For conventional, fan-cooled laptops: Visually check the fan blades for\u00a0encrusted\u00a0dust and debris; use a\u00a0cotton swab and a blast of dry, compressed air\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1237,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/05\/a-reader-suggests-caution-re-laptop-use\/","url_meta":{"origin":2342,"position":2},"title":"A reader suggests caution re: laptop use","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2018-12-05","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent spate of questions concerning laptops\/notebooks (see list at end) prompted this note from frequent correspondent* Tony Luxton: \u201cIt\u2019s worth pointing out that 'laptop' is a terrible name (I can remember when they were called \u2018desktop replacements\u2019). The one place you shouldn\u2019t use a laptop is on your lap;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reader Comment"","block_context":{"text":"Reader Comment","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/reader-comment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2364,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/19\/a-reader-asks-which-is-a-better-way-to-speed-up-an-older-laptop-add-more-ram-or-change-the-old-hard-drive-to-a-solid-state-drive\/","url_meta":{"origin":2342,"position":3},"title":"A reader asks: “Which is a better way to speed up an older laptop, add more RAM, or change the old hard drive to a solid-state drive?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-03-19","format":false,"excerpt":"In general, \u201colder laptops\u201d were mostly 32-bit systems, which mathematically max out at 4GB of RAM. If the laptop has less RAM than that, I\u2019d consider starting there, to bring the laptop to its full memory complement. Because it\u2019s an \u201colder system,\u201d you probably can buy RAM for cheap. If\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/1280px-Samsung-1GB-DDR2-Laptop-RAM-e1587235482510.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1156,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/26\/a-reader-asks-how-much-ram-do-i-need-for-my-laptop\/","url_meta":{"origin":2342,"position":4},"title":"A reader asks: How much RAM do I need for my laptop?","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2018-11-26","format":false,"excerpt":"Q: How much RAM do I need for my laptop? I mostly use it for word documents, Internet browsing with multiple tabs, and, occasionally, light video editing. I currently have 4GB but I'm considering going up to 8GB. (via Quora) A: Here\u2019s an easy way to see if you have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/ram-use-fig-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3088,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/16\/how-should-you-destroy-old-usb-flash-drives-so-that-sensitive-information-cannot-be-recovered-from-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":2342,"position":5},"title":"“How should you destroy old USB flash drives so that sensitive information cannot be recovered from them?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-07-16","format":false,"excerpt":"It depends on what level of snooping you want to guard against. But in all cases, it\u2019s smart to start by reformatting and data-wiping any kind of drive\/memory that you\u2019re discarding. So, that\u2019s the first step. Next, you can deter casual snoops simply by destroying the physical USB package: Use\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2342"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2380,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342\/revisions\/2380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}