Is Putting Tape Over Your Webcam Actually a Good Idea?
upstart writes:
Is Putting Tape Over Your Webcam Actually a Good Idea?:
When you walk around an office or cafe, you'll often see people using an array of items to cover up their webcam. Sometimes it's tape, post-it notes, folded business cards, stickers, their thumb, or a marlin. I smear peanut butter over my webcam, but chunky peanut butter. It's more secure than smooth.
None of those items came with the laptop upon purchase, and it's easy to make fun of putting something there as paranoid. The idea that someone wants to look through your particular webcam seems a bit narcissistic and on edge, as if we're leaving our house and saying to one in particular, "Please, no cameras."
But while it's absurd that people are putting tape over their webcams, it's doubly absurd that it's actually kind of a good idea.
[...] While we all know there are cameras everywhere, it seems somewhat natural to do what we can to prevent a few of them from looking at us. Even Mark Zuckerberg-the guy with more information on people than the Library of Congress-puts tape over his webcam.
[...] Feel free to feel silly when blocking your webcam, but be silly and safe. If your webcam is covered with a plate of osmium wrapped in blackout curtains and sealed with one of those tire clamps, I won't judge.
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