I spy a bit of tape on your camera phone

Smart people, such as FBI bosses and CEOs of internet companies are sticking post-it notes on their devices. You should take their lead — unless you enjoy being spied upon

Hint: they’re watching y u

What’s worse than not knowing who’s spying on you? Probably having a spy in your hands. Not so long ago, a colleague asked my why the [expletive] does an app have to ask permissions for this, that and anything else in between. For the uninitiated, almost every smartphone app requires permission for something — and of course, it needs it for certain functions to work. The most common ones are contacts, location and your camera-and-mic combo, for obvious reasons. And these are exactly what could possibly expose you. And with more reports coming out regard ing cyber-spying and wiretapping, and that of governments designing programmes to take over cameras and mics… cue to freaking out. To put things into perspective, consider this from no less than FBI boss James Comey: “I put a piece of tape over the camera because I saw somebody smarter than I am had a piece of tape over their camera.” Could he be talking about Mark Zuckerberg? Yes; that dude, in a 2016 photo, was shown to apparently have some tape slapped on to his laptop camera and microphone. I’m not making this up. If these high-profile people are actually concerned about their privacy being invaded – whether with merit or just out of plain paranoia – then men on the digital street like us may also have to be. And earlier this year, with all the hype surrounding Super Mario Run’s launch on iOS and its impending release on Android, some nuts decided to try and cash in on the excitement by releasing some app very similar to it, which is said to be capable of snapping pictures at certain moments. Meanwhile, Kaspersky Lab, in a recent report, said that some automated kiosks or interactive terminals — like those you use to purchase movie tickets from — were found to have vulnerabilities that can be exploited to spy or spread malicious code. Cue more freaking out once more. Mind you, covering laptop cameras has its roots from years ago. The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Eva Galperin has been doing this since she bought her first laptop in 2007. Then, in 2013, the EEF began selling web camera stickers with a label that reads, “These removable stickers are an unhackable anti-surveillance technology” — and it’s still being sold right now for $10 (Dh36.70). Now… get your smartphone and take a good look at it. With everything that we’ve installed in it, you can’t help but wonder if there could be something fishy happening in it. (Here’s something that actually happened: after writing that line, I asked Siri on my iPhone, “are we being spied upon?” Its answer? “No comment.” I repeated that question over and over and got the same response.) For starters, there really isn’t much we can do when it comes to granting permissions for apps — they need it to function properly. And you can’t stop this – but there are other ways to out smart the spy in your hands. Changing your passwords regularly – from those in your e-mail to online banking to anything else – could be your first line of defence. Many apps require strong passwords, such as those with a mix of upper- and lowercases, a number and a special character for good measure. (I once used the longest English word published in a dictionary–pneumono ultra microscopic si li co volcano con io sis–as my e-mail password, and there were three characters in upper-case, two of them in special characters and one in a number. Possibly still not the most powerful, but still, try to beat that.) On the software side, make sure your device always has the latest versions of its OS and apps installed. This is critical because developers regularly roll out updates to patch any vulnerability they may have discovered in their programmes. Furthermore, one sign a smartphone is acting funny is when it’s slower than usual: try clearing out an app’s cache. On Android, it’s under the App Info in Settings. It’s a bit more tedious in iOS: the only way to clear an app’s cache on an Apple gizmo is to uninstall then reinstall it. In relation to that, only download apps that are the mostused and most-trusted. Scour the Web for reviews if need be, and look out for red flags. Don’t get something just because it’s free or it looks promising. And if you really want to be sure – or are feeling some paranoia after reading all of this — go ahead and put some tape on your webcam and mic. Here’s a suggestion: use some really lively and colourful stickers to make them look more, well, stylish… just like 007.

In a 2016 photo, Mark Zuckerberg had tape slapped on his laptop camera and microphone. I’m not making this up... These ‘removable stickers’ are an unhackable anti-surveillance technology” sold for $10 (Dh36.70)