As a counterpoint, I love that they're subtle. I don't want big things glaring out at me. (But when they're disabled, there is an orange section. If you don't know that it's possible, as your family probably doesn't, you won't think anything of it, but it's easy to see at a glance the status.)

Orange for "warning, you're safe" instead of "warning, you're on camera"?

I've had mine for over 2 years and 2 mbs and never really noticed. I never use the webcam.

I agree though, I would rather it be invisible unless I look specifically. Just the meaning when I DO look should be obvious, and orange for inactive is not obvious or natural to me except in maybe parachutes.

I think consistency is important between vendors. It would be annoying if one vendor chose orange to mean that you're on camera, and another vendor would show orange to mean that you are off camera.

11th gen owner here. Yeah I found this confusing as well, but probably the least annoying thing that has bothered me on a laptop.

> If you don't know that it's possible, as your family probably doesn't, you won't think anything of it

Unfortunately, they just thought the laptop is buggy, since it was not obvious that this feature existed. This person is also a lead on a consumer hardware product at the big company, and is aware of general privacy shutter features etc. In this case, the issue was just that it was not obvious that there was a privacy shutter on the laptop.

Part of the improvement comes from the 13th Gen processors, and part comes from improved firmware control of the retimers. We have firmware updates for 11th Gen (stable release) and 12th Gen (beta release currently) that enable the latter.