research-article

Somebody's Watching Me?: Assessing the Effectiveness of Webcam Indicator Lights

Authors:

Rebecca S. Portnoff,

Pratyush Mishra,

David WagnerAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '15: Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 1649 - 1658

https://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702164

Published: 18 April 2015 Publication History

Abstract

Most laptops and personal computers have webcams with LED indicators to notify users when they are recording. Because hackers use surreptitiously captured webcam recordings to extort users, we explored the effectiveness of these indicators under varying circumstances and how they could be improved. We observed that, on average, fewer than half of our participants (45%) noticed the existing indicator during computer-based tasks. When seated in front of the computer performing a paper-based task, only 5% noticed the indicator. We performed a followup experiment to evaluate a new indicator and observed that adding onscreen glyphs had a significant impact on both computer-based and non-computer-based tasks (93% and 59% noticed the new indicator, respectively). We discuss how our results can be integrated into current systems, as well as future ubiquitous computing systems.

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Cited By

Bhardwaj DPonticello ATomar SDabrowski AKrombholz K(2024)In Focus, Out of Privacy: The Wearer's Perspective on the Privacy Dilemma of Camera GlassesProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642242(1-18)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642242
Zhang KCochran BChen RHartung LSprecher BTredinnick RPonto KBanerjee SZhao Y(2024)Exploring the Design Space of Optical See-through AR Head-Mounted Displays to Support First Responders in the FieldProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642195(1-19)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642195
Speith TSpeith JBecker SZou YBiega APaar C(2024)Explainability as a Requirement for Hardware: Introducing Explainable Hardware (XHW)2024 IEEE 32nd International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE)10.1109/RE59067.2024.00042(354-362)Online publication date: 24-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/RE59067.2024.00042
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Somebody's Watching Me?: Assessing the Effectiveness of Webcam Indicator Lights

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '15: Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2015

4290 pages

ISBN:9781450331456

DOI:10.1145/2702123

General Chairs:
Bo Begole
Huawei, USA
,
Jinwoo Kim
Yonsei University, Korea
,
Program Chairs:
Kori Inkpen
Microsoft Research, USA
,
Woontack Woo
KAIST, Korea

Copyright © 2015 ACM.

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Published: 18 April 2015

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CHI '15: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 18 - 23, 2015

Seoul, Republic of Korea

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CHI '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 486 of 2,120 submissions, 23%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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Cited By

Bhardwaj DPonticello ATomar SDabrowski AKrombholz K(2024)In Focus, Out of Privacy: The Wearer's Perspective on the Privacy Dilemma of Camera GlassesProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642242(1-18)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642242
Zhang KCochran BChen RHartung LSprecher BTredinnick RPonto KBanerjee SZhao Y(2024)Exploring the Design Space of Optical See-through AR Head-Mounted Displays to Support First Responders in the FieldProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642195(1-19)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642195
Speith TSpeith JBecker SZou YBiega APaar C(2024)Explainability as a Requirement for Hardware: Introducing Explainable Hardware (XHW)2024 IEEE 32nd International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE)10.1109/RE59067.2024.00042(354-362)Online publication date: 24-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/RE59067.2024.00042
Nicholson JHiggins GMarcum C(2024)How much protection is enough? Predicting the use of webcam protective measures through the lens of low self-control and social learningSecurity Journal10.1057/s41284-024-00451-338:1Online publication date: 26-Nov-2024
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41284-024-00451-3
Zhao YYao YFu JZhou NCalandrino JTroncoso C(2023)"If sighted people know, i should be able to know"Proceedings of the 32nd USENIX Conference on Security Symposium10.5555/3620237.3620498(4661-4678)Online publication date: 9-Aug-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3620237.3620498
Stegman JTrottier PHillier CKhan HMannan MCalandrino JTroncoso C(2023)"My privacy for their security"Proceedings of the 32nd USENIX Conference on Security Symposium10.5555/3620237.3620438(3583-3600)Online publication date: 9-Aug-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3620237.3620438
Do YArora NMirzazadeh AMoon IXu EZhang ZAbowd GDas SCalandrino JTroncoso C(2023)Powering for privacyProceedings of the 32nd USENIX Conference on Security Symposium10.5555/3620237.3620376(2473-2490)Online publication date: 9-Aug-2023
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Stephenson SAlmansoori MEmami-Naeini PHuang DChatterjee RCalandrino JTroncoso C(2023)Abuse vectorsProceedings of the 32nd USENIX Conference on Security Symposium10.5555/3620237.3620242(69-86)Online publication date: 9-Aug-2023
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Ghosh SAbraham ESmalyukh I(2023)Low-Voltage Haze Tuning with Cellulose-Network Liquid Crystal GelsACS Nano10.1021/acsnano.3c0369317:20(19767-19778)Online publication date: 19-Sep-2023
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Prange SAlt F(2023)Increasing Users’ Privacy Awareness in the Internet of Things: Design Space and Sample ScenariosHuman Factors in Privacy Research10.1007/978-3-031-28643-8_16(321-336)Online publication date: 10-Mar-2023
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