Do any laptops have built in mics? I have one from my corp. that is laden with security features and I have wondered if that were possible.
I’d hate to have them hear me cussing up a storm about management.
Food for thought, isn’t it?
I’ve been wondering the same about all of the computers and the company laptop in our home. Now I have a real reason to be paranoid. ;-)
I told my 14yo son (who’s homeschooled) about this story tonight... while he was sitting at the laptop. The look of shock on his face... Then he started wondering aloud: “Why would a school want to spy on a student at home?” He went on to (half-jokingly) surmise there might be a brainwashing program the school is using at the other end to turn the students into zombies who will work for them. (As if the school isn’t already doing that.) Or, he surmised, maybe the school is putting everything into place so they’ll be ready to turn the students into zombies as soon as the brainwashing technology is available.
Far-fetched, isn’t it?
Or is it? ;-)
Most do. On a windows machine go to your sound setup and mute the mic. Most likely it already is, but just check. A small piece of clear tape over the webcam will distort the picture to useless, or I nice hello kitty sticker works well and looks nice on a pink laptop. There are setting on the computer to "clamp it down" and keep most hackers out, but physically covering the camera is the only way to be 100% hacker proof.
You would be surprised at how easy it is to gain access to computers these days. For fun I locked my neighbor out of his own system, he learned a valuable lesson on computer security.