Please Stop Using Webcam Covers

Don’t Be Fooled By This Fake Security Device

OK. It’s less of a “fake security device” than it is a piece that provides absolutely no security benefit - and could cost you an expensive repair bill.

Back in the day, you’d find webcam covers just about everywhere. Companies gave them out emblazoned with their logo on them. But did you know they haven’t provided any real security benefit in many many years?

For several generations of macOS, Apple has required apps and services to prompt the user to approve access to the camera and microphone. Once upon a time, a malicious hacker could theoretically activate the webcam without the green camera LED coming on. But in 2008 (has it really been 18 years?) Apple redesigned their built-in cameras so the camera could not receive power unless the LED indicator did too. So there’s no no way for the camera to work without the LED lighting up. And there’s no known malware capable of bypassing this design.

What’s more, these webcam covers - especially the sliding kind - present the very real danger of cracking your MacBook’s screen. For quite some time Apple has been building MacBooks with tighter tolerances. And now Apple explicitly warns against closing a MacBook with anything thicker than 0.1mm - about the thickness of a sheet of paper - between the display and the chassis. When you stick a webcam on the display, it concentrates a lot of pressure in a small space - on one of the most fragile pieces of your laptop. It won’t take too much pressure for you to crack the display, prompting a repair bill that will run several hundred dollars.

I wouldn’t dream of putting a webcam cover on my MacBook. In 2025, they’re just unnecessary.