How to make sure that no one is watching you through webcam?

Question

I have heard that intelligence agencies and hackers can illicitly gain access to a computer's webcam and microphone and keep a close eye on people using suspicious programs or malware.

Is there any way to check if such thing is happening to you and are there any mechanisms to avoid it on platforms like Mac OS, Linux and Windows?

Disassemble the device, and snip the wires coming out of the webcam and microphone. Otherwise you must assume that you are being recorded. — john doe, Aug 04 '20 at 19:44

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 04 '20 at 10:06

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If, despite the implausibility of it, you are worried that the FBI has hacked your camera, then I'm afraid there won't be much you can do to gain back control of your camera. Therefore I can only suggest a low-tech solution: a camera cover. This is the sort of thing you are looking for:

https://www.amazon.com/C-Slide-Sliding-Computers-Chromebooks-Consoles/dp/B00AZ639VG

answered Aug 04 '20 at 10:06

Conor Mancone

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+1. Or, a piece of black electrical tape will do. – mti2935 Aug 04 '20 at 12:33
i prefer the top corner of a post it note; cheap, effective, re-usable and won't break new macbooks. – dandavis Aug 04 '20 at 19:38
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@dandavis Considering that dust grains broke the old macbooks and wafer-thin camera covers break new macbooks, your best bet may be to not buy a macbook :) – Conor Mancone Aug 04 '20 at 19:41

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 04 '20 at 08:30

Aside from physically disabling the camera hardware, on some devices a webcam can be disabled in BIOS/UEFI, thus preventing access to the hardware from the operating system.

You may not be able to tell whether the camera is actually powered and actively recording just by looking at it. On some devices, there is a faint LED indicator which tells you the webcam is active, but this is unreliable.

If you believe you are being remotely monitored, you can use a packet sniffer, such as Wireshark, to check outbound traffic. Video streams are typically large and tend to stand out.

You'd want to do a packet capture from a network device such as a firewall or router, so that the malware cannot disrupt the packet capture from the end device — john doe, Aug 04 '20 at 19:45

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 16 '20 at 04:08

A camera cover or tape over the camera on a laptop or 2-in-1 desktop.

On a desktop (which typically requires a separately connected web-cam), just disconnect the webcam completely. If the webcam requires another source of power from the outlet, disconnect it from the outlet as well.

How to make sure that no one is watching you through webcam?

3 Answers3