> Many webcams do have the activity light controlled in hardware, such that it isn't possible to record without a clear indicator.

Yesterday's news show that some implementations can be unsecure [0].

> But if you trust your software stack that little, you have bigger problems.

I generally trust the software that I run on my main CPU but there are other threats like DMA malware [1] for example.

[0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6929974

[1] - http://www.stewin.org/papers/dimvap15-stewin.pdf