UN officials, world leaders, and high-ranking dignitaries cover their phone cameras primarily as a failsafe protection against zero-click spyware, remote activation, and accidental data leaks.
While software fixes and encrypted apps protect data in transit, they cannot override the laws of physics: if a camera lens is physically blocked, it cannot see, no matter how sophisticated a hacker's exploit is.
Maybe to emphasize who it is in the picture, or given how sloppy they are maybe they just subconsciously targeted the face like some kind of moth and forgot there they should be leading to.
This is what I do for my work laptop. We have a camera on rule for meetings, which is fine. I have an external camera that has a shutter I can close when I'm not using it. I don't trust corporate laptops at all. Also so the same for my personal one since I never need to take pictures of myself using a laptop.
During the COVID work from home era, I immediately became a conspiracy theorist and assumed my employer would try prying into our day-to-day via monitoring software.
That was swiftly justified when my laptop camera activation light started turning on irregularly. I started leaving desktop notes that chastised IT or whomever would have spied on my activity.
My average weekly work hours went from 50hrs to 60hrs+ working from home and the thought of them spying pissed me off. Never again.
Honestly, it’s rare that IT would monitor anyone. The amount of hours to watch all employees, logistically there’s no way to do that. Plus IT is more concerned about outside attacks and breaches that could kill the company versus their own employees not working.
Not saying IT doesn’t check but it’s rare for it to be an ongoing thing.
For the times they are a changin' 🎶 - This song brought to you by Flock Safety in joint co-operation with Palantir. Now for our next request, who's on the line?...
no it's not. It's the worst step backwards since the invention of meetings and the worst waste of bandwidth since the invention of spam mails.
If you can't do a conference on the phone without video - learn it! it's not hard.
EDIT: Screenshare or showing others something physical by holding it into the camera is not waste or senseless so I'm all for it. But those are rare compared to people stupidly staring into their cam, questioning their life choices in UHD.
In environments like that, phones, smartwatches, and other electronics are usually checked at the door.
Things like tape are a stopgap to make you feel better about your imagined privacy. To be honest, when it comes to cellphone IDs, worry less about cameras and more about the always-on microphone.
Then you're next to me with a knife and if I'm the head of state or something, I think there's might be a bunch of burly men in tuxedo's doing unmentionable things to you real soon.
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u/Character-Total-3857 18h ago
UN officials, world leaders, and high-ranking dignitaries cover their phone cameras primarily as a failsafe protection against zero-click spyware, remote activation, and accidental data leaks.
While software fixes and encrypted apps protect data in transit, they cannot override the laws of physics: if a camera lens is physically blocked, it cannot see, no matter how sophisticated a hacker's exploit is.