“Does Mark Zuckerberg know something about online spying operations that we don’t?” Chris Smith wonders for BGR.
“Is he just showing the appropriate amount of paranoia that suits his position? Or is this a new fashion statement? Whatever the case, Zuckerberg appears to wear fancy tape over the camera and microphone of his MacBook Pro, as shown in the image [below],” Smith writes. “Zuckerberg posted the picture to celebrate a major milestone for Instagram, hitting 500 million users. But various people quickly observed that the MacBook on his desk has both the camera and the microphone covered with tape.”
“Strangely enough, Zuckerberg isn’t the only high-profile leader to show such paranoid behavior when it comes to being hacked,” Smith writes. “Recently, FBI Director James Comey said that he also put tape over his laptop’s camera after he saw ‘somebody smarter’ with a similar setup.”
3 things about this photo of Zuck:
Camera covered with tape
Mic jack covered with tape
Email client is Thunderbird pic.twitter.com/vdQlF7RjQt— Chris Olson (@topherolson) June 21, 2016
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ve been taping our Mac cameras for several years. Call us paranoid, but first see the related articles below. That’s why we use camJAMR iSight camera covers on our iMacs and MacBook Airs. They’re black, so they work perfectly with our iMacs and they’re removable/reusable. We’ve stuck and unstuck them hundreds of times. We just leave them on and peel them aside when we want to use the iSight camera. Plus they’re only $15.
SEE ALSO:
How to disable the iSight camera on your Mac – February 19, 2015
Orwellian: UK government, with aid from US NSA, intercepted webcam images from millions of users – February 27, 2014
Sextortion warning: It’s masking tape time for webcams – June 28, 2013
Research shows how Mac webcams can spy on their users without warning light – December 18, 2013
Ex-official: FBI can secretly activate an individual’s webcam without indicator light – December 9, 2013
Lower Merion report: MacBook webcams snapped 56,000 clandestine images of high schoolers – April 20, 2010
Perhaps the iSight Camera is hackable, but I cannot recall any serious report that its ever happened ..
You can’t recall, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t and doesn’t happen. See the articles MacDailyNews has provided.
Thankfully we do not have to rely on your or anyone else’s ability to recall. No offense but it’s funny how everyone thinks they are the final arbiter, information source and opinion that matters.
MZ pays $5m/year for security for himself and family. MBPro is just part of the security.
Watch vice and see how easy it is for someone to open your phone camera and mic and more without the victim having a clue
And yet he had ‘dadada’ as LinkedIn password….
I cover my camera. I have no need for it (yeah, I know how to disable it in software, but I prefer to have it if needed heaven forbid…
The mic, I don’t care about so much.
I don’t care. I’m naked, fat and disgusting. So if you wanna spy on me and look at me. Go for it. lol
Good to know. Now I don’t undress or play myself in front of my MacBook.
Smith uses “paranoia” with no justification, except as a way to make his writing seem more interesting.
Credibility down the tube.
Are we supposed to assume that THAT is Zuckerstain’s desk?
…Probably one of his employee’s desk. These guys don’t have to play around with such stuff. They have to work hard and to use the Facebook’s intranet only! (lol)
Is that even Marks desk? Looks a little odd to have the CEO out on the floor with no privacy except for the camera and mike covers.
Now I understand why I’m having trouble buying tin foil for my hats lately. Sounds like even powerful people are getting paranoid. I wonder why?
Pretty Ironic and hypocritical. Since FB loves to infect your every fiber and wants to know everything about you to sell off.
I don’t know about the FB wanting to ‘sell off’ anything. They have trouble enough sharing data and methods within #MyStupidGovernment. But we know full well that the FB has MANY man-in-the-middle nodes on the Internet, spotted across the USA. Whether they managed to use their nodes for legal purposes is of course in question. But so far, I’m unaware of any reason to expect them to ‘sell off’ anything.
That was my first thought. If he is worried about security and privacy, then he certainly shouldn’t be using Facebook.
Recently, FBI Director James Comey said that he also put tape over his laptop’s camera after he saw ‘somebody smarter’ with a similar setup.
We already know Comey is a techTard. (0_o)
However, there are so many hacks around that manage to turn on cameras without turning on their activity light, so many hacks that turn on microphones…. I have a sticky over my MBP camera lens and mic, knowing these hacks are possible. I’m OCD about keeping my Macs clean of potential malware (seeing as I study and write about computer security), so it may be overkill. But someone with professional secrets at stake is wise to take such precautions.
My face isn’t pretty enough for anyone to try and hack the camera in my MacBook Pro to look through it.
Then again, neither is Zuckerberg’s.
At first I thought he just had the headphone jack covered, which would have made no sense .However, I did a bit of research and check it out, that is where the microphone is http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/design-retina/#mics
The link you provided reveals that the microphones on a MacBook pro ( yes, two of them ) are mounted beneath the loudspeaker grilles. If you decide to cover the microphones with tape and still be able to hear the speakers, you will need to source some magical tape that lets sound pass in an outward direction, but doesn’t let sound travel inwards.
“Oh no, there’s a camera on my laptop, and a hacker is gonna break into my computer and look at me!”
News flash — you’re surrounded by more cameras than just your laptop every day.
Get over yourself. You’re not important enough to spy on.
All the more reason to buy a discrete Mac and a third party monitor without a microphone and web cam.