If Apple makes such high-end stuff, and is marketing on privacy, why can't they spring for hardware switches? Pine64 does, and they're by no means high-end. Not by price, anyway.
I don't need to trust the implementation of some switch, I can physically cover up the camera with a nicely integrated cover. No trust required for about 0.01¢ of plastic.
Photo here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mdpettitt/41991398752
I disagree. Hw switch seems a bit more trustworthy/inspectable
Making something bigger didn't seem to any kind of consideration when going from iPhone 5 to iPhone 6+.
I always used to say I don’t cover the webcam on my MacBook Pro because any hack sufficient to activate it without my knowledge would mean the attacker already has root, including my bank login, etc, and I’d just be closing the barn door after the horses have left.
In the Covid era, however, my threat model is no longer unlikely malicious actors with root , but more plausible bugs in my conference software. I’m not worried that a statistically implausible attacker has a zero-day on my webcam, but that Zoom has a bug that will default the camera to on despite my settings as I join standup coming out of the shower. If there were a firmware-based gesture to explicitly turn the camera on, I wouldn’t need the tape.
It doesnt need to be a hardware cover, just a hardware killswitch to the circuit.
Yes, and it's one of, what, three moving parts left? Even the home button on the iPhone 7, 8, and 2020 SE is fake, it doesn't actually depress.
Problem is people dont trust software. People want a hardwired fix.