Malware can turn off webcam LED and record video, demonstrated on ThinkPad X230

Re:Malware can turn off webcam LED and record video, demonst... by salutis on Thursday November 28, 2024 @02:42AM (#42263343)

Why do you think my stance is internally inconsistent?

For example, I completely trust Emacs maintainers, as I have yet to see any malice or dark patterns coming from them. The same applies to other free and open source software I use on a daily basis. These projects respect my privacy, have nothing to hide, and I have no problem trusting them.

On the other hand, I see more and more dark patterns coming from Apple, say when signed out of their cloud services. They pour millions into their privacy ads, but I do not trust them to act ethically, especially when money is on the table.

Does this not make sense?

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Re:Malware can turn off webcam LED and record video, demonst... by perching_aix on Thursday November 28, 2024 @02:57AM (#42263421)

Thinking about it, I might have misunderstood what you wrote a bit. What I read was that you trust people, but then you also don't. That's not really a fair reading of what you wrote.

That being said, I have seen "patterns" with open source software as well, so I'm hesitant to agree on trusting it. But that's a different problem.

I also know how little hardware, microcode and firmware can be trusted, so that doesn't help either.

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Re:Malware can turn off webcam LED and record video, demonst... by salutis on Saturday November 30, 2024 @04:08AM (#42280512)

Thank you for the clarification. I certainly could have worded my comment better. I agree with you on that we should never trust open-source software blindly. That said, we can at least audit it, along with every new patch, which is impossible with binary blobs. That is why, I personally think, open-source should be preferred, for free and non-free software alike.

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