This beautiful image here on the side that portrays a smiling Mark Zuckerberg for the successes with Instagram, but which centers with the title of this article "> MrRobot may have understood. Basically Zuckerberg wants to make sure nobody is spying on him using his computer .
Since a hacker can theoretically overcome any technical barrier, any password or protection, surely he will not be able to do anything to spy on a person and hear what he says if his PC has a covered webcam and a plugged microphone.
Putting an adhesive tape on the webcam lens is a simple and excellent precaution that costs nothing, easy to remove when needed.
Espionage via webcam and computer microphone is a rather important issue for the security of people's privacy.
Cases where unsuspecting people have been spied on live by the camera, perhaps even listening to what they talk about at home are by no means rare and this precaution of Zuckeberg is far from caused by paranoia.
There are many Malware that take control of the computer webcam to transmit live streaming images without anyone noticing.
Even some websites can take advantage of incorrect exploits and codes to record from the microphone without asking for user authorization.
To protect yourself from these malware and from possible espionage via webcam and microphone, the easiest way is certainly to apply a piece of adhesive tape to cover them when they are not used .
In another article, in the past, we have also seen how to activate and deactivate the webcam when not in use which is also a way to protect your privacy, even if less perfect than the adhesive tape (because the malware could also succeed to reactivate the webcam without us being able to notice it).
As for the microphone, if integrated into the computer, a sticker may not be needed to cover it.
To temporarily deactivate the microphone on a Windows PC, you can right-click on the volume icon, press on Recording devices, right-click on the default and active microphone icon and then on deactivate .
When necessary, it can then be activated at any time.
The problem with the microphone and the webcam can be mainly linked to websites that ask for permission to use it, since once given the permission, this is also maintained in the future.
To check the permissions for the use of the microphone and the webcam of the websites, open the Settings in Chrome, press on Show advanced settings and then, under Privacy, press on Content settings .
In the pop-up that appears, scroll down until you find Video Camera and Microphone and, for both, put the option " ask when a site requires access to the camera " and " ask when a site asks for access to the microphone ".
For both then, press the Exceptions button and, to avoid checking each previously authorized site, clear the list and start again keeping in mind to authorize microphone and video camera only for truly safe and reliable sites.
before activating ".
It is not over here, then go to the Windows Control Panel and find Flash Player (if it is installed), in order to configure the permissions of the flash plugin to use video camera and microphone .
In Firefox, the permissions granted to the sites for the use of microphone and video camera are found in the Security section of the Settings, by pressing the Exceptions button.
This should be enough not to be spied on by webcam and microphone, even if, if I were you, I would immediately do like Zuckerberg and put a piece of tape on the camera lens, which you never know.
