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is my boss spying on me through my laptop?
Hello, I am far from computer savvy so let me forewarn you. I have a Latitude E6510 laptop issued to me from my work. Every so often I get this error message type of prompt that says "capture" and I have to click OK to get rid of it. I can tell it is related to the webcam. To make it stop, I have to go into task manager and under processes I end webcamdell.exe What is this capture message? Is my employer taking snapshots of my screen remotely?
Thanks for any help anyone can offer!
Oysterisk
116 Posts
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September 29th, 2010 13:00
End of story? You are very much mistaken. Check this:
http://www.securecomputing.net.au/News/172400,school-laptop-spying-case-inspires-new-law.aspx
and this:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/03/school-laptop-spy-case-prompts-wiretap-act-rethink.ars
And I won't even start on your claim of: "If you aren't doing anything against ... then you have nothing to worry about" since it would take us too far away from this technical forum into the realm of human rights and civil liberties. Suffice it to say that "you've got nothing to hide" argument has been so thoroughly discredited, I'm surprised anyone would even think of bringing it up again.
To the original poster:
Under Administrative Tools go to Services. Find all services related to the Webcam and change them to "Disabled" (I'm assuming you don't need the Webcam of course). Note that it's not enough to just stop them since they can be restarted - you need to disable them.
Also check what is in your start-up programs and what's scheduled under Task Scheduler (also under Admin Tools - not Task Manager). Remove anything that looks Webcam related. This is more a "for good measure" sort of thing since killing services should take care of that too, but just in case.
Finally, you could try playing with your firewall but that requires knowing what you are doing and, since you say you aren't computer savvy, better leave it for now, see if the first two suggestions will do the trick.
Good luck fighting the Big Brother :emotion-11:
ieee488
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September 29th, 2010 08:00
If you aren't doing anything against company then you have nothing to worry about, do you?
If you want to "do your own thing", use your laptop. End of story.
Oysterisk
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September 29th, 2010 16:00
How is it different from that school spying on their students? And as for reading context - take your own advice, I hope you don't imagine that court rulings and law (Wiretap Act) don't apply in that particular case?
And I strongly disagree with your assertion about "he knows is against company policy". What happened to the right to privacy? To "presumed innocent until proven guilty"? To the right not to incriminate yourself, if it comes to that?
Not sure where in the world you are located geographically, but looks like I have to explain elementary human and civil rights to you.
ieee488
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September 29th, 2010 16:00
The OP was worried about his boss spying on him. Clearly he is doing something he knows is against company policy. Otherwise, why worry about his company spying on him????
You had better learn to read better and understand CONTEXT.
ieee488
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September 29th, 2010 18:00
The employer is not "spying". They are protecting their property. The laptop belongs to the company not to the OP. The company is certainly within it's right to make sure that its property is being used per company policy.
There are other ways the company can keep track of what the OP is doing with the company's property other than through the webcam. I work for a multinational conglomerate. They "track" the company laptops.
The OP's post was about the laptop's desktop. Read it again. Why would he be worried about his Windows desktop, if he wasn't worried about doing something he shouldn't???? It was just company "stuff", why would the OP care???? Use a little common sense, why don't you???
As I wrote above, don't use the company's laptop for private business. If you want to surf pornographic sites, then do it on your own laptop. Use the laptop for company business ONLY. How hard is that to understand?????
parkerti
610 Posts
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September 29th, 2010 18:00
Tannyar:
I can see how one might be concerned about an employer spying on them, and short of knowing what type of program your company has installed, I suggest a very low-tech response. Simply use a very small bit of masking tape (not the clear stuff) over the webcam. End of story. One of the posters has indicated you are certainly doing something wrong - I don't read your post that way, but if you are, don't use company equipment, as the company is probably within its legal rights to monitor your activity while using their equipment or networks.
tannyar
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September 29th, 2010 19:00
Geez. Wow Lee488, I think you didn't get enough hugs as a child. I can see your pretty passionate about the rights of corporations and companies. I wasn't asking the question so I could surf porn sites. The webcam capture message pops up all day long every single day and interrupts what I am doing. It's very annoying. And it's disconcerting knowing I'm being so closely monitored since the messages pop up about twenty or more times a day. It's either a screen shot or their taking a picture? It's just unnerving. I just started this job, I am not playing with the computer during work hours, I am a professional and I just don't have time. But thank you to Parker and Oysterix for backing me up. Lee488 you're opinion is valid as is your point, but it was just a direct question, I just needed to know how to fix it. I will give the suggestions a try tomorrow. Thanks again.
tannyar
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October 12th, 2010 09:00
Geez. Wow Lee488, I think you didn't get enough hugs as a child. I can see your pretty passionate about the rights of corporations and companies. I wasn't asking the question so I could surf porn sites. The webcam capture message pops up all day long every single day and interrupts what I am doing. It's very annoying. And it's disconcerting knowing I'm being so closely monitored since the messages pop up about twenty or more times a day. It's either a screen shot or their taking a picture? It's just unnerving. I just started this job, I am not playing with the computer during work hours, I am a professional and I just don't have time. But thank you to Parker and Oysterix for backing me up. Lee488 you're opinion is valid as is your point, but it was just a direct question, I just needed to know how to fix it. I will give the suggestions a try tomorrow. Thanks again.
tannyar
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October 12th, 2010 09:00
I just wanted to thank again the people who offered me constructive advice. I was able to disable the webcam and the snapshot tool no longer pops up throughout the day. At least if I am being monitored I don't have the annoying snapshot box pop up all the time interrupting me. And I don't feel the nervousness (paranoia?) of being watched, which is all I wanted! Thanks so much for the advice!