RE: The Absolutely Simplest Thing You Can Do To Protect Your Online Privacy
It's not built-in as in built inside the circuit board. The microphone is usually located next to the webcam or next to the keyboard, so it's usually a long black cable that comes out of the board with a bean sized black mic at the end. It's usually pluggable-off.
Otherwise the wire can be soldered off, and they can put an insulator tape on the remaining wires. Of course people should do this carefully, the PC should be plugged off from the socket and the battery should be removed before they attempt to do anything like this. And if they don't know what they are doing, then they shouldn't.
However, removing the mic is also important. The mic can gather a lot more information about people than a camera,so its a worse surveillance tool.
Also, and no offence but, I'm not sure it's wise to recommend that people should download and open unfamiliar files on their computers. It's not a habit people should be in, for security reasons.
I wrote the guide. Or are you implying that I've put some hidden malware inside the book?
You can easily virus scan it if you don't trust me:
https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/1caff5e3081f825dc2fa0178c22960fd256de4643308e4eec77a9bd238cf6e27/analysis/1494181213/
Firstly, what I said remains true: non-technical computer users, and especially those who weren't even aware that their webcams might be used to spy on them, are very unlikely to disassemble their computers to any extent. Let alone solder anything. This guide was written for them.
That does not mean I think you are wrong about what you said. You are correct, that it's safest to unplug the microphone entirely. I stress again, just in case you missed it, that the focus of what I wrote here was something easy and non-technical just about anyone could do to enhance their online privacy.
Secondly, laptops are built very differently, from brand to brand. And whilst its true that most have their microphone cables in a similar position, the difficulty and method of accessing it can be very different. On a Clevo laptop it's essentially trivial. On every Asus I've tried it with, getting under the keyboard has been painfully inconvenient.
Finally, I implied nothing about your trustworthiness. But it's a good idea to promote scepticism amongst non-technical users when it comes to opening downloaded documents from sources they don't know, for much the same reason as clicking links in emails isn't generally a great idea if you aren't certain who the sender is/what the motive is (at a minimum).
It's not about you; it's about helping non-technical people improve their privacy in an accessible way.
Yes, it's very shocking to see the complacency and ignorance in people. I could understand older folks, but young people who were brought up in this tech world and having no clue about the dangers of them, is pretty schocking. And it's also a parenting issue for the most part.
So yes education is crucial, this is not the kind of thing that your teacher will teach you. Not even in an IT university. They are clueless for the most part.
I see, no problem, I just misinterpreted your reply.
Yes skepticism is important, but if people want to really be careful, they should download stuff only in a virtualized environment on a throwaway computer from the beginning. There is always a threshold of safety vs convenience that people will put up with. It's their choice to decide.
I have had several laptops, Lenovo, Mac, my fiansee has a Dell, and in each of them I found the mic and removed them easily. It's really not that hard, there are plently of youtube tutorials how to open the case, and of course safety guides to not damage the board or hurt yourself.
I've been removing the mic for about 10 years now, even before the Snowden revelations. It was just common sense to me that anything can be hacked, and having a mic and webcam spy on you passively is not fun.
I any case, I like your posts, I will be following you and looking forward to work. I like how your username is a reference to an Orwellian Society, room 101 from the 1984 novel.