fdrinca Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 We just purchased a new laptop to replace our 10-year-old computer, and one of the first things I did was to stick a Post-It note on the camera, much to the amusement of my husband. I'm curious if I'm overthinking the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 My computer has this thing that pops up when I am re-booting. I always click on it and turn the camera "off" before I do anything else. :) It seems wrong that that thing is "on" by default. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
City Mouse Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 No, I don't worry about it. If someone really wants to hack into my laptop just to watch me work I think I would be flattered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nd293 Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Dd13 got a laptop for her birthday, and I did have her stick stickers over the camera lenses. It may be uncommon, but there are stories of spying so I'll err on the side of caution when it costs me nothing. The other computer is in the study. No stickers on that one - if anyone's life is so sad that they need the occasional view of a wobbly 40-something in her undies, well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto10blessings Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 After I connected to the wrong wifi at the gym and got a virus that took my picture and posted it on my laptop, yes I always cover the lens. It freaked me out for weeks. No idea if someone has my picture, but it was just creepy!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 I might pick my nose while alone, and would rather not be photographed doing it. :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrixieB Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 We just purchased a new laptop to replace our 10-year-old computer, and one of the first things I did was to stick a Post-It note on the camera, much to the amusement of my husband. I'm curious if I'm overthinking the issue. That's something I never thought about. Most of the time our laptop is hooked up to a bigger monitor, so the laptop itself is closed. But when it's open... hmm... I will have to look into this camera situation. I wonder if's it's automatically "on" all the time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in Neverland Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 My camera has a blue light that glows when it is on so are you saying that it could be on and that light wouldn't be glowing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mergath Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 That's something I never thought about. Most of the time our laptop is hooked up to a bigger monitor, so the laptop itself is closed. But when it's open... hmm... I will have to look into this camera situation. I wonder if's it's automatically "on" all the time? It doesn't really matter. If your computer gets infected by a remote administration tool, the hackers can turn on your camera and record you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incognito Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 I've called my parents via skype before and their computer has somehow answered and I've been looking in their room and they weren't there. Only happened once, but it was interesting. We have our camera separate and it is facing a wall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mergath Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 My camera has a blue light that glows when it is on so are you saying that it could be on and that light wouldn't be glowing? The last I read about it- and this was maybe six months ago- the hackers were trying to figure out how to get the virus to turn on the webcam without also activating the little light. I never did read anything more on it, but I would bet they did eventually figure it out. Here's one article on it, for those who are just hearing about this now: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2291644/Beware-new-ratters-plague-Men-spying-women-OWN-webcams-injecting-virus-computer.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 I turned mine off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rubix Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 No post-it's here. Mine is securely covered by a Band-Aid that says What the Shrek? Nifty. I have occasionally put my laptop on the bathroom counter and watched an Amazon prime show while I soak in the tub. I'm not interested in being the show, just watching one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fdrinca Posted December 10, 2013 Author Share Posted December 10, 2013 I confess, my concern is mostly vanity (picking noses, various states of breastfeeding undress, etc). It just strikes me as "ugh, weird!" that the potential for prying eyes is so available. I find I've been leaving the laptop open as I look up recipes, play music, listen to NPR, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dahliarw Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 I'm more concerned about our two kinects connected to our xboxes sitting there in our family room, 24 hours a day, then I am about my laptop camera. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom in High Heels Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 James Bond and Indy have them over their laptops (PC's) because JB's came on one day while he was on it in his room in Afghanistan (the light came on). He didn't like that at all. I don't have one on mine. I have a macbook and they're much harder to hack, from what I've read, so I'm not worried. Also, the only time the computer is open is when I'm using it, so unless they just want to watch me typing or reading and occasionally laughing at WTM boards, well, look all you want. I'm pretty. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katy Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Yep, post-its cover laptop cameras in our house too. I've heard too many stories of hacking. That one a few years ago where a school district gave out laptops to every kid, and then some of them got in trouble for things they were doing at home because a school administrator started checking cameras really angered me. Seriously? Teen girls with cameras in their bedrooms without their permission to record? I really hope the story was fake, but I never bothered to verify. I just started covering them. eta: here's a wikipedia page on that scandal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katy Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2291644/Beware-new-ratters-plague-Men-spying-women-OWN-webcams-injecting-virus-computer.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onceuponatime Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 My dad was a computer systems manager for years. He refuses to have one with a camera and has told us to cover any cameras on computers that we have. Ds has his covered with duct tape. Our desk top doesn't have a camera. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pod's mum Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Thank you for sharing your paranoid delusions. Will sticker now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In The Great White North Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 I taped a dime over mine. Post-It's seem too translucent. The tape forms a little flap, so I can flip it up when I want to Skype. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie in Ma Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 My computer has this thing that pops up when I am re-booting. I always click on it and turn the camera "off" before I do anything else. :) It seems wrong that that thing is "on" by default. You can turn off autostart on a lot of things that are set to run on boot that don't need to be. If you are comfortable with computers you can do it in msconfig, if you are not, the free program CCleaner has a tool you can use to do the same thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melinda in VT Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 I couldn't vote, because I have two computers, and my answer is different for each of them. My personal laptop has nothing over the camera. I've only used the camera once or twice. Ever. My work laptop (I work from home 100% of the time) has tape over the webcam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 No. There is not much interesting any hacker would get to see by hacking into my camera... just a middle age woman, wearing clothes (or at the worst, warm pajamas) sitting in front of a huge bookshelf typing on her laptop. He'd get bored fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Mousie Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 I've called my parents via skype before and their computer has somehow answered and I've been looking in their room and they weren't there. Silly, they were just messing with you. They were there the whole time. Didn't you hear the snickering in the background? ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 I use masking tape. From what I've been told by computer security people, it's an easy, low-tech solution, and no, I don't think it's being paranoid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jann in TX Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Yes I have a post it there--- but I'm not paranoid about someone spying on me... I teach online classes and I do not use the video feature (we use whiteboard only plus voice). I have the post-it there just in case I accidently hit the wrong button... kids do not need to see me with headphone-hair and no makeup! Plus my 130 pound white german shepherd likes to rest his head on my shoulder when I teach-- so he would be VERY distracting! I had a parent once sign into a class for her son while he was in another room. She hit the video button-- and her picture was broadcast to the whole class. I kid you not-- she had cold cream on her face, rollers in her hair and a TATTERED bathrobe on. Her 17 yr old son was mortified when he found out! I now have the ability to turn off the video feature when I set up the class.... but sometimes I do a quick tutorial and the video feature is right there next to the mute button... so YES, I have a post it over the camera... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildcat Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 I don't think its paranoid. I am sick and tired of people spying on everything we do. I read an article just the other day about how the camera can be activated *without* the light coming on. Like others, I'm mostly sitting here poking around on the internet, usually in scruffy/comfy clothes, but the reality is (for me) that I don't like it. I don't like being followed, I don't like that my personal data is being mined, I don't like that everything I do is in a computer somewhere with a file on my surfing habits, what I search for, or what link I clicked on. This may not be an issue now, but who knows what might happen with the data down the road? Another story I read was about the revenge p0rn site and how people's photos were being superimposed on other bodies, and they were being found out and fired from their jobs, harassed, etc. I just don't want to make things easier for people to mess with me. As a side note, I have a thumbnail sized post it sticky on my camera and I just remove it when I need to. Based on what I see when I video chat with ds, it is not see-through.... he just sees a blob of color if I forget to take it down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyontheFarm Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Flower stickers on the the girls laptops, a construction vehicle sticker on sons. Also, since I alone have these stickers, I could tell when an older dd started using video for skype because assigned sticker was gone. Mommy had some discussions with that child about skyping in bedrooms to boys - I don't care if they are your cousins! They don't need to see you in your Pj's!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMA Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 So, what about your tablets and phones? And what about those microphones? The iPad had an iOS upgrade that makes you turn on the microphone for your app instead of leaving the microphone on all the time because someone could be recording through the microphone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8circles Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 It took me a long time to figure out what this thread was even about. No, I don't cover the camera on any of our computers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 I've called my parents via skype before and their computer has somehow answered and I've been looking in their room and they weren't there. Only happened once, but it was interesting. We have our camera separate and it is facing a wall. This! It is so creepy. Our computer used to be in our bedroom before we moved into the new house. One night I was sat in bed reading with hubby when suddenly my grandfather's face popped into the room, camera pointing right at our bed!!! Ugh, so creepy. I shudder to think of the possibilities. I disconnected the camera until we moved the computer and now I have a little cloth bag over it even though it is in the library now. 😣Shudder! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourcatmom Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 It doesn't bother me but my kids do it! They hate that thing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsTheDay Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Yes, because I clicked a link on collegeconfidential and then realized my camera was on. I don't know if the link was weird or not, but my kid stuck black electrical tape over the camera. That was over a year ago, and it came on one other random time a few months ago. I really think both times that I inadvertently did something to turn it on (lol), but I have no idea what that was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristusG Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 I never have.....until a few months ago. My computer got a virus and it kept opening up my webcam. Even when I closed the pop up window, I could tell it was running in the background because my computer was moving very slowly. This kept on for a day or two before I realized it was probably a virus. My DH called his uncle, who specializes in computers, and he told us that someone was probably accessing my webcam and could possibly have seen me through it. He recommended that we put a post it note over it. I did and it has been there ever since! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tabinfl Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Nope, my entire family (and everyone at our office) is repeatedly reminded of how to avoid getting viruses in the first place. We do not open unknown or unexpected email attachments, we do not visit questionable websites, we do not download software without IT Department (i.e. me) approval, we keep up with OS and vulnerable application (flash, adobe, etc) updates & patches, we run virus scanners at all ports of entry, and on kids' & office computers (some of the office people are worse at following instructions than the kids :p), etc. etc. Without benefit of a virus scanner on the computers I use -- they do chew up resources and get in the way of certain activities -- I have not (knock wood) personally acquired any malicious software in over three decades of computing, with one notable exception: one of the nascent internet systems i was responsible for in 1988 was hit by the Morris worm. Anyone/thing that can turm on your camera without your knowledge or permission can also be running a keylogger (captures everything you type, including passwords), using your computer as a spam-sending "bot", mining bitcoins using your CPU, or using your computer to participate in DDoS attacks or password-cracking computations. These things concern me far more than someone getting a photo of me or my kids in our jammies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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