Do you think a hardware cutoff switch for the camera, like the Librem 5 and PinePhone, is enough to ensure privacy, or would you really want an actual built-in camera cover like is on some laptops (that presumably also kills the power since the system knows whether the camera is covered). The caveat for only having a switch being that you can’t very easily audit the circuitry to check if it’s actually turning off the camera, but the benefit being that it’s easier to implement, has fewer points of failure, and will leave more room for a bigger camera.

Also, would you want separate switches for front and rear facing cameras or are you okay with turning both of them on and off with one switch?

  • AgreeableLandscapeOP
    1·
    4 years ago

    It would be cool if the kill switch could signal the phone to accept the call or something, but realistically I don’t think that’s ever going to happen of course.

    That’s actually completely doable even if we’re working with the stipulation that power cut off, not just a signal to not use the camera, because you can just wire transistors up to the switch output. A transistor detects the switch output and turns the power on or off accordingly, while the switch output goes on to inform the processor what the state is. No processing needed that could introduce errors into the power cutoff system.