FBI Director to Americans: Cover Your Webcam, Dummy

Don't get Big Brother'd, brother

September 15, 2016 9:00 am EDT

As a brilliant man once said, “Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not after you.”

With regard to webcams, that’s increasingly looking like a pretty spot-on sentiment.

We found out over the summer that Mark Zuckerberg — just like the resident conspiracy theorist in your office — covers his laptop’s webcam with tape. And now the head of a little organization called the FBI has confirmed he also endorses that tactic.

During a conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, FBI Director James Comey equated covering up the webcam on your computer to common sense. “There’s some sensible things you should be doing, and that’s one of them,” he said, according to The Hill. “You do that so that people who don’t have authority don’t look at you. I think that’s a good thing.”

Comey then compared covering a webcam to some other basic methods of modern self-protection: “I hope people lock their cars. Lock your doors at night. I have an alarm system. If you have an alarm system you should use it, I use mine.”

Point taken.

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Evan Bleier

Evan Bleier

Evan is a senior editor with InsideHook who earned a master’s degree in journalism from NYU and has called Brooklyn home since 2006. A fan of Boston sports, Nashville hot chicken and Kentucky bourbon, Evan has had his work published in publications including “Maxim,” Bleacher Report and “The Daily Mail.”
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