Last year I heard from somebody, that hackers can watch you trough your webcam. There was also an episode of GTST (a dutch soap serie) where it was shown. I immediately put a sticker on my webcam. At one point, the sticker fell off and I forgot to put a new one on it. At the beginning of this year, there appeared new posts about taping your webcam.
At a certain point, I saw more and more people with a patch, sticker, tape, etc. on their laptop.
The Volkskrant also posted an appeal on their website at the 15th January. In January, Lodewijk van Zwieten, national public prosecutor in the area of cybercrime, advised all dutch people to cover their webcams the moments they don’t you use it.
This was in response to the court case against the eighteen year old hacker who had broken into computers on a large scale and had manipulated all kinds of files. The hacker also spyed on people through their webcam. This can be quite simple with certain software (Volkskrant, 2014).
The VPRO wants to make its viewers aware of this and has previously included stickers in its TV guide. At the front page they placed the sentence: It’s watching us.
The organisation Bits of Freedom, that defends digital rights, developed Bits of Freedom Stickers that you can stick on your webcam. With these stickers you can let everybody know that internetfreedom is important to you. These stickers can be ordered at their website (Bof, 2014)
Of course it’s also possible to put a normal sticker or something else on your webcam!
Why is it cool?
Total Transparency has it’s benefits and it’s drawbacks. A disadvantage is that our privacy is in danger. These activities will make people think about their own privacy and incentivise them to take action. They can make sure that their own privacy is protected.
Why has it future growth potential?
Because of the technological developments, it’s harder to protect your privacy. The trend Total Transparency is a long- term trend and will not end in a month. We want our privacy back and we want to have control about our own live. These actions seem to make that a bit more attainable.
elinesmits 