zlacker

>>xairy+(OP)
I can see why some people might be concerned about the camera, but I'm far more concerned by the microphone. There's far more sensitive and actionable information that can be gathered from me that way! I'm glad that macOS started putting a light in the menubar when the microphone is in use, but I'd prefer to have unhackable hardware for that instead.

>>epista+i3
macOS is a proprietary binary blob, remotely controlled by Apple. So, the light in the menu bar is not a reliable indicator of anything. There is no privacy on macOS, nor any other proprietary system. You can never be 100% sure what the system is doing right now, as can be anything it is capable of. Apple is putting a lot of money to "teach people" otherwise, but that is marketing, not truth.

>>saluti+p5
You can watch network traffic for data leaving the device. Trust but verify.

>>james_+Q6
Good luck auditing even just a single day of moderately active web browsing.

>>lxgr+F9
It's easier than reading all of the code in Ubuntu.

>>kube-s+Pi
But still entirely impossible. So does it matter?

>>lxgr+uo
Network traffic monitoring is routinely done at enterprises. It's usually part-automated using the typical approaches (rules and AI), and part-manual (via a dedicated SOC team).

There are actual compromises caught this way too, it's not (entirely) just for show. A high-profile example would be Kaspersky catching a sophisticated data exfiltration campaign at their own headquarters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f6YyH62jFE

So it is definitely possible, just maybe not how you imagine it being done.