UK government spying on your webcams!

[Frankenfurter]

Haha. Tooshort - reading through this and seeing all the XBox One paranoia and solutions of unplugging it and turning it to face the wall, I was wondering how long it would take for someone to suggest some masking tape or a post-it
If you're really worried about the IR bit as well you could always just rest a DVD case over the top, all those DVDs we've all got lying around have got to be useful for something in the future, right? xD

But yeah, I'm not really sure what I think of the snooping issue to be honest. I'd rather have my government occasionally catch me enjoying a web-chat with my SO than have them miss out on a great way to limit the usefulness of the web as a communication channel for gangs/terrorists/criminals/pedophiles/whatever. People want total privacy, and also to live in a crime-free environment where their kids can be completely safe, it's just not realistic any more. In fact, I'm not sure it ever has been. >.<

*shrugs*

As has been said a couple of times though, I'd much rather it was ONLY my government with access to this data, provided I'm not slave trading on Skype. Ideally, only a government computer (ie. no people with access to my data, all the regulation in the world can't fix blackmail, bribery problems etc. completely if a large number of people are given access). Anyway, the less data corporates have on me the better.

[Splash]

I don't really much care if GCHQ have my face (or, were I stupid enough to put it on webcam, which I'm not, other bits of me) on file, but I most adamantly object if MS, Google, Tesco, etc, do.

Problem being the number of government/public services that have uncomfortably chummy relationships with the private sector: we've already seen that regardless of contractual wording a number of those private sectors are quite happy to treat personal data as another potential source of income. Once the genie is out of the bottle you can't put it back in.

[Frankenfurter]

You're right there. There's also the risk of corruption.

The more data that can be exclusively managed by computers the better imho. Face recognition is a start but events recognition would be better. That way people would only get their hands on the data if there was a fair chance it deserved to be looked at. If people don't have access the data doesn't get shared.

[fma965]

i never have my webcam plugged in and it's not even drivers installed on my laptop