What are users meant to do if they want to use their Mac's microphone while the laptop lid is closed?
But this is one case where there really is a pretty fundamental trade off if the goal is a really simple core "when the lid is shut I'm guaranteed audio privacy from that vector". Anything that allows getting around that in turn is a potential bypass. Anything in software, even if it requires a special boot to access, leaves some room for bugs. And for both software or even a physical hardware switch there would be room for someone to accidentally or maliciously leave it on, and it would be very hard to notice. Given how cheap microphones are and that if someone is using the system with the lid closed they're already committing to a certain amount of much more expensive external hardware, I think it's quite reasonable to stick a straightforward visual heuristic that "if the system is closed and thus the camera cannot see the microphone cannot work either". Easy to verify at a glance for anyone, not just the owner, easy to remember. Like security, good privacy design requires not just a solid technical foundation, but considerations for human UX.
Within the week that they had them, two people in the department had broken their screens/hinges from accidents walking in and out of meetings with the lids open because there was no way provided in the software to disable suspend on lid closed which was killing people's SSH sessions. Within the month someone in my office also managed to do the same, and most of us weren't even using macs.
(I understand that this was eventually workaroundable with some power users tools; and I imagine mosh makes the suspends a little less of an issue now).
I'm sad that the popular linux desktops later decided to emulate the bad software culture that brought anti-features like that mandatory suspend.
So I expect that mic off on hinge close will have similar results. Though, ... at least this seems a lot more legitimate to me than a refusal to not suspend.
Also, using tmux (or screen) on the other end of the ssh connection helps. And not only for when you close the lid, but also if the connection gets interrupted (power failure, internet failure, routing failure, whatever)
I can't imagine how much more equipment would be damaged if the people described were carrying around a power source and a monitor with them so they could close their laptop and bring it to a meeting without dropping their sessions.
- Use a webcam with an inbuilt mic (fairly common)
- Use an dedicated mic
Plenty of options here.
https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/woot17/woot17...
USB microphones are like $3. You'd use one anyway if the lid was closed because the microphone would be pressed against the display.