Hidden Security Cameras

[Ethan N]

Are you doing things at home you don't want people to hear about? LOL. Just kidding. Whatever floats your boat and makes you feel comfortable.
The TV or radio is about the only thing they would pick up around my house. We don't discuss anything nefarious to be concerned about.

Nothing nefarious, of course, but we certainly have private conversations quite frequently that we would like to stay private. If nothing else, when we’re it’s none of anyone else’s business.

 

[TerryMiller]

Thanks for pointing out you can turn it off. But if you can turn the mic on with your phone, someone who hacks into can turn the mic on as well. I’m not comfortable with that.

Do you have a smart TV? I've heard that those can be hacked and make a microphone "live."

 

[dennishoddy]

Do you have a smart TV? I've heard that those can be hacked and make a microphone "live."

Not as easy, but if your connected to wifi via your smart TV that is entirely possible.
Intelligence services could use a standard TV to pick up conversations in a room I've read.

https://lifehacker.com/how-to-protect-your-smart-tv-from-getting-hacked-1822805501

Edit:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2...ting-storing-your-private-conversations.shtml

Edit:
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/household-products-spying/story?id=19974898

I don't think I'd be too concerned with cutting the speaker/mic wire in a WYZE cam. There are more significant privacy intrusions out there.

 

[Ethan N]

Do you have a smart TV? I've heard that those can be hacked and make a microphone "live."

Nope.

Any devices we have in our home with any recording capability (video or audio) are made by Apple. Doesn’t make them hack-proof by any means, but they’re a lot more trustworthy than a $20 camera from a company started by former Amazon employees.

I am going to grab a couple of those WYZE cameras at some point to plug in when no one’s home though (which is not often).

 

[Ethan N]

I used to work for a Silicon Valley company. I worked in software development for e-commerce, but the company does a lot of different things in technology. Quite a lot of the people working there normally keep their laptop webcams covered whenever they aren’t using them (myself included). It was mostly the engineers, developers, designers, etc., plus a lot of management. You know…those of us who have a pretty good idea what’s possible as far as security vulnerabilities.

 

[dennishoddy]

I used to work for a Silicon Valley company. I worked in software development for e-commerce, but the company does a lot of different things in technology. Quite a lot of the people working there normally keep their laptop webcams covered whenever they aren’t using them (myself included). It was mostly the engineers, developers, designers, etc., plus a lot of management. You know…those of us who have a pretty good idea what’s possible as far as security vulnerabilities.

Have a piece of black electrical tape over my webcam on the laptop as we speak basically to keep it from breaking if someone turns it on to look at my ugly mug.

 

[Ethan N]

I don't think I'd be too concerned with cutting the speaker/mic wire in a WYZE cam. There are more significant privacy intrusions out there.

For most people, probably. Not for me. I’m careful and I know how the technology works. I actually currently work for a company whose primary business is security camera systems.

Whenever I talk about my privacy measures people ask what I’m doing wrong that I have to hide. Nothing. You don’t need to have something to hide for it to be a bad idea to let too much of your life be public. Just look at deepfake videos for a good example of how not guarding your privacy can lead to very bad or embarrassing consequences, even if you’ve done nothing wrong. I saw deepfakes coming years ago. I haven’t allowed more than a couple photos of myself or my wife to be posted online in years, and exactly 0 photos of our kids. Our extended families know that sharing photos of our kids on social media is game over for them getting any more photos from us. It’s harsh, but it’s the world we live in. Most people just haven’t realized it yet.

 

[Glock 40]

Nope.

Any devices we have in our home with any recording capability (video or audio) are made by Apple. Doesn’t make them hack-proof by any means, but they’re a lot more trustworthy than a $20 camera from a company started by former Amazon employees.

I am going to grab a couple of those WYZE cameras at some point to plug in when no one’s home though (which is not often).

I wish I could find the youtube video of the hacker convention that reviewed the stuff Snowden leaked years ago. They were showing the NSA tool book and what tools they had for law enforcement and other entities for sale like Stingrays. At one point they talked about the tool kits they had for Apple products. Simply put prior to Apple encrypting their devices. The NSA could take over ANY Apple device within 1 minute per documents Snowden leaked. So its one of two things their security was absolute shite or Apple was complicit. My guess probably both. That same video talked about how the NSA intercepted servers from delivery carriers once they had left Dell, HP, IBM and embded their own chips for remote access to these devices. They started listing off their versions of hacked firmware it was nuts. I say that simply to say I don't trust anything made in China running Chinese code. Most everything apple sells is made in Foxcon City so I wouldn't trust it much more than the Chinese cameras that call home as soon as you put them on your network.

 

[dennishoddy]

For most people, probably. Not for me. I’m careful and I know how the technology works. I actually currently work for a company whose primary business is security camera systems.

Whenever I talk about my privacy measures people ask what I’m doing wrong that I have to hide. Nothing. You don’t need to have something to hide for it to be a bad idea to let too much of your life be public. Just look at deepfake videos for a good example of how not guarding your privacy can lead to very bad or embarrassing consequences, even if you’ve done nothing wrong. I saw deepfakes coming years ago. I haven’t allowed more than a couple photos of myself or my wife to be posted online in years, and exactly 0 photos of our kids. Our extended families know that sharing photos of our kids on social media is game over for them getting any more photos from us. It’s harsh, but it’s the world we live in. Most people just haven’t realized it yet.

Deep fake is no different than Adobe photoshop and other video editing software.
That's cool your protecting what you think is your privacy, but in this day and time there is none.
Retail markets like google track you across the internet, Duck Duck go search engine is supposed to stop that, or Safari, but in reality it still tracks you but doesn't do it so blatantly with ads on your internet searches.
Some retail stores where you have done online searches are recognizing you when coming into the store and turning on the happy music you listen to because a happy customer is a buying customer and they are putting smart LED displays on counters that track your cell phone while your walking the aisles to give displays of discounts for things you buy and so on.
There is basically zero way to not be tracked in today's electronic age unless you pull the batteries from the cell phone and toss the phone and computer into the trash and go completely off the grid.
We even use data protocol to send our electrical bill to the billing office of the utility's we use.
Some "privacy experts" have said that protocol can be used to spy on you as well.
So, unless you crawl under a rock, your being spied on by technology and there is not a damn thing you can do about a lot of it.

 

[Ethan N]

I wish I could find the youtube video of the hacker convention that reviewed the stuff Snowden leaked years ago. They were showing the NSA tool book and what tools they had for law enforcement and other entities for sale like Stingrays. At one point they talked about the tool kits they had for Apple products. Simply put prior to Apple encrypting their devices. The NSA could take over ANY Apple device within 1 minute per documents Snowden leaked. So its one of two things their security was absolute shite or Apple was complicit. My guess probably both. That same video talked about how the NSA intercepted servers from delivery carriers once they had left Dell, HP, IBM and embded their own chips for remote access to these devices. They started listing off their versions of hacked firmware it was nuts. I say that simply to say I don't trust anything made in China running Chinese code. Most everything apple sells is made in Foxcon City so I wouldn't trust it much more than the Chinese cameras that call home as soon as you put them on your network.

Definitely good to be thinking about these things. However, Apple has staked their entire reputation and the future of their company on their users’ privacy, to the point of repeatedly defying the Justice Department and sinking tons of resources into legal battles to protect the integrity of their products. Most people don’t know enough about how these kinds of products work to really see this, but Apple’s investment in technology to improve the security and privacy of their devices in the last 4-5 years has required massive financial investment. They’re not just paying lip service to privacy. The kinds of things they’re doing to improve privacy are innovative and take a lot of work.

So, there’s a chance it’s all a sham and they’re complicit with spying on the American people. I’m comfortable with the unlikeliness of that risk as I see it. There’s also the risk that their products aren’t perfect and expose their customers to security vulnerabilities. That’s certain. But Apple has demonstrated more commitment and ability to protect their users’ privacy than any other consumer electronics company. It’s also relatively trivial for them to verify that their products have been manufactured as specified without modification by would-be spies Chinese or otherwise, and you can bet they are doing that these days.