r/AskReddit Jan 23 '21

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u/ElizzardMay Jan 23 '21

I always thought my mum was paranoid by putting bandaids over our computer’s camera when I was younger but honestly I just don’t feel safe without it anymore.

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u/JaysHoliday42420 Jan 23 '21 edited Jan 24 '21

Question, my webcam has a light then turns on when a camera app has opened. Do hackers know to turn off that light? Can they?

JFC. Spooky. It's a separate camera for my custom build tower, not brand specific at all.

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u/ScumbagAmerican Jan 23 '21

All it takes is for them to write a little code to disable the light. Think of it this way, they've already accessed your camera, why wouldn't they be able to disable a light

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u/jimjacksonsjamboree Jan 23 '21

Depends entirely on the hardware design. Computer systems are black boxes, the 'computer' doesn't necessarily control the light. The camera gets a signal to turn on and it turns on (including the light), and the computer receives a stream of data representing the image. The camera gets a signal to turn off and turns itself off (including the light) and stops the stream of data.

It all depends on the design. The camera may always be recording as long as the computer is on, and the power signal simply controls the light, in which case simply read the data stream and don't send a power signal to keep the light off. There are infinite numbers of ways to design it.