Why High-Profile People Cover Their Phone and Laptop Cameras: A Free Privacy Trick, Explained
A strip of tape over a camera costs nothing, and some of the most closely watched people in tech and government have been caught doing it. Here is why, what the record actually shows, and where the trick stops working.
The short answer
People who are high-value targets cover cameras because spyware can, in principle, switch a camera on without the owner knowing, and tape is a cheap way to make sure nobody sees through the lens. It is not universal, and it only solves part of the problem.
What is actually documented
- Mark Zuckerberg, June 2016. A photo he posted showed a laptop with tape over its camera and its microphone jack, as the Christian Science Monitor reported. A Twitter user spotted it, and the laptop appeared to be his.
- James Comey, 2016. The then FBI director said he taped over the camera on his personal laptop because he had seen someone smarter than him do it, according to IT Pro.
Both cases involve laptops. We found no reporting that counts how many world leaders tape their phones, so “always” would overstate it.
Why a camera is a target
Commercial spyware is the reason security people take this seriously. Reporting on NSO Group’s Pegasus, based on the Pegasus Project investigations, says it can reach a phone’s camera and microphone. NSO denies wrongdoing and says it sells to government clients. Some versions reportedly need no click from the victim and rely on bugs the phone maker has not yet fixed.
Where governments simply ban the phone
Governments tend to skip the tape. Secure rooms known as SCIFs ban electronic devices, and Nextgov’s January 2018 report on the White House phone ban describes the worry as adversary intelligence services using malware to listen in on or photograph meetings. In 2018 the Pentagon issued new restrictions that put mobile devices, switched off, in storage containers outside secure areas.
Does tape on a phone work?
Only partly. This part is PCGeek’s own reasoning, not a sourced finding:
- A phone has a rear camera and a front camera, so one patch of tape leaves a lens uncovered.
- Tape does nothing about the microphone, which is the bigger leak for private conversations.
- Apple’s green dot (camera) and orange dot (microphone only) appear when an app uses them, as MacRumors explains. But TechRepublic reports that Intellexa’s Predator spyware can suppress those indicators on a compromised device, so a missing dot does not prove nothing is recording.
What you can do
- Keep your phone updated. Zero-click spyware depends on unpatched bugs.
- Watch the dots. A green or orange dot you did not expect is worth a look.
- Review permissions. In Settings, Privacy and Security, check which apps can use the camera and microphone and remove the ones that should not.
- Tape a laptop camera if it helps you relax. It is cheap and does what it says. Just don’t treat it as protection against spyware.
PCGeek’s take
The habit is real and the reasoning is sound for a laptop webcam. The viral idea that every world leader tapes a phone is not something we could verify, and tape is a small part of real protection. Updates, permissions and, for the highest-risk people, keeping the phone out of the room do far more.
Do you cover your camera, and does it make you feel safer? Tell us in the comments.
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