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A comment on You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may listen when mic is off. Parent comment

Re:You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may lis... by toyg on Wednesday April 13, 2022 @04:56PM (#31020159)
> Zoom, for example, will tell you, when you are muted and you begin to speak

MS Teams has that feature too.

TBH I'm not surprised: when you mute the mic in an app, you're still letting the app in control. If you really want to be safe, you need to mute at OS level or in hardware. That's why cameras have a hardware cover in modern laptops.

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Re:You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may lis... by sushisource on Wednesday April 13, 2022 @05:03PM (#31020237)
Precisely, this is why I think the earlier comment's suggestion:

> How about we not make the default that companies can do whatever they want and users have to take steps like a hardware-muted mic (which isn't always an option) to ensure a basic expectation of privacy?

Sounds nice on the surface, but is ultimately silly. Sure, it'd be nice if everyone did the right thing, but you can never guarantee that, and hence if you really care you need to perform the mute at a lower level than what the app has access to.

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Re:You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may lis... by hutzlibu on Thursday April 14, 2022 @06:05AM (#31024964)
Well, I have hardware buttons, too. But without some basic trust, this society could not operate anymore.

And the increasingly (or is it just perceived?) shady behavior of big companies are not helping.

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Re:You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may lis... by chopin on Thursday April 14, 2022 @06:50AM (#31025200)
>But without some basic trust, this society could not operate anymore.

I am afraid this eludes our leaders across the board.

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Re:You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may lis... by the_pwner224 on Wednesday April 13, 2022 @06:00PM (#31020832)
The apps can control the sound devices at the OS level too. But fortunately most(/all) don't, so muting in the sound server / OS is generally safe.
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