> I really would hate to taint my MBP with ugly duct tap on the camera, but I may have to in the future.
A tiny piece of black electrical tape blends in nicely and won't leave gunk on your bezel.
A tiny piece of black electrical tape blends in nicely and won't leave gunk on your bezel.
Jesus Christ, guys. Do you use Linux?
Just blacklist the webcam module to preventing it from loading whenever the system boots. Want to use the webcam? Load the module manually.
# modprobe uvcvideo
Want to unload the camera again? Easy.
# modprobe -r uvcvideo
Generally, it's the uvcvideo module, but it might change from system to system.
A malicious code would need root access to your system to load/unload the webcam module. If someone has root access to your computer/to execute code in your computer, you're in MUCH, much deeper shit than if you let someone film you. Seriously. Specially if you use your computer for money transactions or talk about important stuff to people.
I would say that it's still notable even if it relies on root access, since it's been previously believed that this was not possible with software at all.
It might be possible to drill out the webcam from the backside so long as you were very careful to not drill too far, but if that is how your computer is set up you should probably look for a safer method.