Mark Zuckerberg photo reveals that the CEO puts tape over his webcam

midian182

Posts: 9,632   +120
Staff member

Mark Zuckerberg posted a photo of himself yesterday celebrating Facebook-owned Instagram reaching 500 million users. At first glance, there doesn’t appear to be anything out of the ordinary going on in the image, but if you look closely you’ll see that the billionaire takes no chances when it comes to protecting his privacy from hackers.

It appears that Zuckerberg thwarts any would-be voyeuristic intruders by placing a piece of tape over his laptop’s webcam. There also seems to be something obstructing either the audio jack or the dual microphones on his Macbook.

While physically covering a laptop camera with tape may seem a bit paranoid, the CEO isn’t the first public name to reveal - albeit unintentionally - that he takes the precaution. Back in April, FBI Director James Comey said he also puts tape over his webcam after seeing someone “smarter than I am” do the same thing on the news.

Some people have pointed out that the desk isn’t quite the ostentatious, luxury piece of office furniture so often associated with CEOs, and maybe it belongs to someone else. But as noted by Gizmodo, it’s definitely the desk Zuckerberg said was his during a Facebook Live video posted nine months ago, complete with the same books, wooden Facebook sign, and sunscreen.

Maybe Zuckerberg purposely left the laptop and tape on show as a way of proving he’s still pretty savvy when it comes to stopping people spying on him. The Facebook co-founder lost some credibility last month when his Twitter and Pinterest accounts were accessed after hackers reportedly found his password – "dadada" – in the leaked LinkedIn data.

Permalink to story.

 
At the very least it proves that he's not a *****. On the other hand, maybe he knows something about facebooks background activities that the rest of us don't.

I don't actually believe that, but it'll drive the conspiracy theorists nuts.
 
I do that on my laptop also, but put on one of this coloured stickies that have no adhesive on the "tab" part to not leave traces of glue on the cam itself and to remove it in case I need to use it... genius I know.
 
I'm not a Mark fan, but when you bring your device to a highly secure office/data farm/etc, security will put tape over any camera or recording device you may have. It's possible he never removed it. Or he just covers up his camera because he knows he's a high profile target for malicious activity.
 
The mic on your phone listens to you 24\7. I figured it in a few ways. My girlfriends facebook app kept giving us post a comic ideas. Based off our conversations. We had fight, the recommended comic to post was "XXX is in hot water!". We went grocery shopping, suggested comics were us cooking the dinners we bought, "Jack and Jill are making spaghetti!" Then my car broke down, later that day "Car trouble?".

Secondly I told my girlfriend about a obscure dream about a certain mythical creature..... Then went on to tell my friends it was a very realistic dream. Guess what yahoo ads, youtube and my phones suggested app buzz feed oriented around? Well you guessed it.

I searched about it and a reedit user said if you leave your cell phone next to the tv all night on telemundo your youtube videos just might turn to spanish.

Hmmm what were those permissions\legal agreements you skipped over? What's in that app you downloaded? Someone thinks that boring data is worth something, marketing ads....
 
The mic on your phone listens to you 24\7. I figured it in a few ways. My girlfriends facebook app kept giving us post a comic ideas. Based off our conversations. We had fight, the recommended comic to post was "XXX is in hot water!". We went grocery shopping, suggested comics were us cooking the dinners we bought, "Jack and Jill are making spaghetti!" Then my car broke down, later that day "Car trouble?".

Secondly I told my girlfriend about a obscure dream about a certain mythical creature..... Then went on to tell my friends it was a very realistic dream. Guess what yahoo ads, youtube and my phones suggested app buzz feed oriented around? Well you guessed it.

I searched about it and a reedit user said if you leave your cell phone next to the tv all night on telemundo your youtube videos just might turn to spanish.

Hmmm what were those permissions\legal agreements you skipped over? What's in that app you downloaded? Someone thinks that boring data is worth something, marketing ads....
Prove it and you have yourself a triple digit billion dollar class action lawsuit. What are you waiting for?
 
I'm not a Mark fan, but when you bring your device to a highly secure office/data farm/etc, security will put tape over any camera or recording device you may have. It's possible he never removed it. Or he just covers up his camera because he knows he's a high profile target for malicious activity.
Not if you have security that actually knows what they are doing. Taping over recording devices only works as long as the user remains escorted and compliant with the 'tape protocol'. Competent security departments simply say 'no' when you want to bring in an outside device to a secure facility.
 
Smart move. I think the guy's just being cautious. Don't see anything wrong with the photo. Surprising? Yes. Mundane? No.
 
I use the tape over the camera move as well. I just want to be safe from those hackers, I watch too much crime series I guess. lol
There are tons of news articles that talk about camera and microphone hackers (so it's not just crime series).
These issues started a while ago.

I take my privacy and safety very seriously. When I got this laptop, I saw it had a camera. Taped it over immediately. Used it with the OS it had pre-installed until the warranty expired. Backed up all my files, and did what I do on my other computers. I installed Linux.




I started using computers since the age of 5. Over the years, stopped trusting Windows with my work. It was slowing my workflow down with its registry issues. Crashed often. Often defragmentations were extremely annoying. It was extremely expensive to maintain. The often antivirus purchases that couldn't guarantee me full protection; it just wasn't worth it. The best antivirus I ever used was Kaspersky. However, it was still expensive for me. Started switching to Linux at 16. At 20 I completed my transition.
 
There are tons of news articles that talk about camera and microphone hackers (so it's not just crime series).
These issues started a while ago.

I take my privacy and safety very seriously. When I got this laptop, I saw it had a camera. Taped it over immediately. Used it with the OS it had pre-installed until the warranty expired. Backed up all my files, and did what I do on my other computers. I installed Linux.

I started using computers since the age of 5. Over the years, stopped trusting Windows with my work. It was slowing my workflow down with its registry issues. Crashed often. Often defragmentations were extremely annoying. It was extremely expensive to maintain. The often antivirus purchases that couldn't guarantee me full protection; it just wasn't worth it. The best antivirus I ever used was Kaspersky. However, it was still expensive for me. Started switching to Linux at 16. At 20 I completed my transition.

I'm familiar with Linux but not that familiar yet. I'm just really starting this liking with technology. I'd like to know more about it though and based on what you said, it seems better to go with Linux. Can you share with me more about the benefit of switching to a Linux? Hope to hear from you soon, mate!
 
It's the first thing that I do every time I buy a laptop. Get a tape and cover the camera/mic. It's a bit of a paranoid move, but I don't really use them.
 
Back