Can people look through my webcam with out me knowing?

You have no way to know that. It's not paranoia to assume its possible the U.S. government has a way to check our cumputere. Especially when you consider computers leave the most trails when communicating with others. In fact, id be surprised if they wouldn't have anything to check on us, that would be a massive gap in their control system. They can check our phones, but in this digital era checking a computer could give far more results in crime resarch.

 

i have a way to know that: i can actually see if my computer communicates over the internet. it can't do that without being visible.

and it would be documented if that would happen.

 

Student,

You really are giving the government too much credit.

In Canada, they couldn't even get the Gun Registry system to work - with only 30 MIL people, under budget and in the time frame they alloted themselves (in the months/years I believe).

You expect a gov't (any gov't) to be able to process what 1 billion or so people are doing at any one time? With 2 billion or more computers?

Just not going to happen with current tech, no not even with multiple i7's!

 

Wel duh, they aren't watching you at the moment are they Ofcourse you don't see anything yet. And you probably stil wound't if they were watching you.

Edit: to avoid confusing im not talking about the mwatching you trough your webcam, just checking al your pc files.

 

uhm, look. i'm not paranoid. but people like you are. and there are geeks that have such paranoya. and they use linux, and own firmwares on their routers, and they check out every bit a windows system communicates. from where, to where. if ANYTHING would go to the cia or something similar, they would spread that info everywhere on the internet including slashdot.org and wikileaks.org and everyone would knew.

nothing of that kind happens.

that should tell you something.

namely, that you now think they get silenced/killed, and that you're still not paranoid

 

and there's nothing hidden on the hdd, too, so you can reverse engineer that to find out some "bundestrojaner" (spyware by a government).

and nothing like that got found so far, too.

and the windows source is actually open to a lot of companies and governments and all, so it's not like you can not look at it if you would want to.

 

Most professors (especially history professors) know almost nothing about the world in which we live today. Most are, in fact, entirely useless.

The sooner you learn this, the better.

 

and that's why they're professors: because they could not get a real job in the topic they teach

 

Actually, my professor from many years ago said that when someone couldn't get a real job based on their skills, they went to work for a bank.

 

my professor actually said "when one could not find a real job in the skills they learned at university, they get .. professor"..

and we looked at him and said "but you..."

and he said "yes.." with a HUUUGE smile

 

Touche!

 

Normally if the webcam is in use a light will come on.

Anyways why would someone wanna watch you, unless you are some celeb or important figure? If you are that paranoid remove the driver for your webcam from Device Manager.

 

he was great

but he could get quite angry if you questioned his knowledge, showing him a bit why he never got far in the business world

 

Clearly you don't know what your talking about, you couldn't be more wrong. History professors more than any are very aware of the contemporary world. Who do big policy makers go to when there is a conflict to solve in the present? Exactly, they ask historians to look at the current problem, and see where and how it occured in the past.
I still stand by the fact that if they check phones, it wouldn't be logical if they wouldnt check computers aswell.

 

knowing much does not mean to not be able to filter trough it to know which part is true, and which is paranoia. espencially if you're a history teacher, you know so much sad things, you can't really accept that not everything is sad and evil and corrupt.

 

I'm aware of the very low educational level in the USA, but I had no idea people became a professor if they couldnt find a job. Here in Europe, it takes 4-5 years to get a Master in History, and another 4 years to finish your doctorate, only then you become a professor. As you can imagine, very few succeed. But thanks for telling, maybe ill come to wherever you live since you suggest becomming a professor is that easy over there.

 

Again you are wrong, why do they hire historians in political debates? Because they are highly TRAINED in filtering what is true and what is not. That's what history studies are al about, apart from learning facts the goal is they can do individual research.

 

check my status, i'm from europe..

and have fun with your stupid paranoia view about the world. instead of using your brain. i showed you what technically is possible, and what not. you don't even think about it.

so, just life your life, i'm out of this topic.

 

Then you should know becomming a professor is far from easy. We are not talking about low life teachers but university professors here, keep that in mind.

Edit, you say im paranoia, while your just closed-minded. I keep my mind open to al posibilities. Rather that than being thrusty and naive.

 

This thread has run off the trails.

Anyone that accuses Microsoft of planting government mandated surveillance programs slaved to the webcam should at least have some expertise in networking and security. A history professor has the expertise of a history professor, which, in other words means jack.

You are keeping your mind open to unproven statements.

 

I really am baffled by your world view. I'm actually quite sad for you.

Being more than a little paranoid myself (but mostly only about business dealings), I can see both sides that you and davepermen are arguing.

What struck a cord for me was what davepermen said that 'instead of using your brain... you don't even think about it' and simply believe what others are telling you.

This is not being called open minded, this is being called gullible.

A saying here is a man who stands for nothing, will fall for anything.

Make a stand - of your own.

 

hey OP and student. I suggest when you graduate and go for job interviews you keep your wild views to yourself or you will be unemployed forever.

 

OMG what has this thread become?
Firstly you should ask a Computer Security Professor and he would laugh at the History Professor.
Second no one is interested in looking at what you are doing in front of the computer and certain they can't do it when there is no network connectivity or power.
If the Agents are interested in your activity they would either
1)Seize your computer
2)Track data moving between you comp (Client) and your ISP (Server)
Not looking at you through your webcam...

 

Okay...that is enough for this thread.

There are plenty of suggestions in this thread if you need them.