<story><title>Google Forcing Nest Cameras’ Visual Indicator Light To Be On</title><url>https://www.mattcrampton.com/blog/Google_forcing_nest_cameras_visual_indicator_light_to_be_on/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jm1234567890</author><text>This is not practical, if I use it as a baby cam I want the light to be off.</text></item><item><author>WalterBright</author><text>The LED needs to be connected to the power lead on the camera. Then it cannot be hacked via the software.&lt;p&gt;Also, microphones and cameras need physical switches to enable them, not software switches. Preferably with an LED indicator too.&lt;p&gt;This is what I did with the electric fuel pump on my car. A dash light connected to the power lead, and a physical switch. There&amp;#x27;s also a low oil pressure switch that&amp;#x27;ll interrupt the power to the fuel pump.</text></item><item><author>drusepth</author><text>This seems equivalent to security theater in response to misplaced fear and mistrust over cameras in general. I understand why they felt pressured to make this change (and the &amp;quot;good&amp;quot; PR it results in), but I can&amp;#x27;t help but shake the fact that, well, it doesn&amp;#x27;t actually &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; anything.&lt;p&gt;Bad actors will just disable the light in a myriad of ways. People will still mistrust cameras because the light can be disabled. Drawing over the light with permanent marker (or doing something temporary like putting tape over it) doesn&amp;#x27;t even create a small barrier of entry for people secretly recording. If they want to secretly record, it&amp;#x27;s not significantly harder now than it was yesterday.&lt;p&gt;The only thing this is supposed to accomplish is appeasing people that don&amp;#x27;t understand technology yet make a ruckus over Google disrespecting privacy. Now Google can say &amp;quot;no look, we do!&amp;quot; and those people will complain about something else.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kokey</author><text>We have been using it to watch our non-verbal young autistic son in bed. I know a tiny light in a pitch black room keeps him awake for many hours of the night and he doesn’t do being awake quietly so it also keeps us awake. We also can’t just remove the camera, it’s not like he is able to tell us that he has wet his bed. Having been given zero days notice of this change means I’m going to have to take time off work today to go home to find an effective way to put some tape over the light.&lt;p&gt;I have been holding back on deciding which home automation ecosystem I want to buy into. I was leaning towards Google and Nest was our first step into that direction. However I’m now increasingly of the opinion that I should just continue to build it out with devices where I have control over the firmware.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google Forcing Nest Cameras’ Visual Indicator Light To Be On</title><url>https://www.mattcrampton.com/blog/Google_forcing_nest_cameras_visual_indicator_light_to_be_on/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jm1234567890</author><text>This is not practical, if I use it as a baby cam I want the light to be off.</text></item><item><author>WalterBright</author><text>The LED needs to be connected to the power lead on the camera. Then it cannot be hacked via the software.&lt;p&gt;Also, microphones and cameras need physical switches to enable them, not software switches. Preferably with an LED indicator too.&lt;p&gt;This is what I did with the electric fuel pump on my car. A dash light connected to the power lead, and a physical switch. There&amp;#x27;s also a low oil pressure switch that&amp;#x27;ll interrupt the power to the fuel pump.</text></item><item><author>drusepth</author><text>This seems equivalent to security theater in response to misplaced fear and mistrust over cameras in general. I understand why they felt pressured to make this change (and the &amp;quot;good&amp;quot; PR it results in), but I can&amp;#x27;t help but shake the fact that, well, it doesn&amp;#x27;t actually &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; anything.&lt;p&gt;Bad actors will just disable the light in a myriad of ways. People will still mistrust cameras because the light can be disabled. Drawing over the light with permanent marker (or doing something temporary like putting tape over it) doesn&amp;#x27;t even create a small barrier of entry for people secretly recording. If they want to secretly record, it&amp;#x27;s not significantly harder now than it was yesterday.&lt;p&gt;The only thing this is supposed to accomplish is appeasing people that don&amp;#x27;t understand technology yet make a ruckus over Google disrespecting privacy. Now Google can say &amp;quot;no look, we do!&amp;quot; and those people will complain about something else.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Godel_unicode</author><text>1. Pretty much every audio baby monitor in existence has an LED on it, those cause no problems.&lt;p&gt;2. Duct tape&amp;#x2F;sharpie</text></comment>