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When I was young, there were no selfies, Facebook's, Twitter's, Slack's (except the ones you wore) or mobile phones... I know that's hard to believe, but its true.

Today, we are in a very different world where we are unwittingly being watched, or are sharing intimate details about our daily lives that we wouldn't have ordinarily.

So for an old codger like me, and for others a little younger too who take their privacy seriously, there are ways to gain it back.

My first attempt after the revelations made by Edward Snowden, and the constant shocking news about the lack of security that has allowed hackers to steal my data, was to install Camera Lock (available for the Mac in the App Store).

Camera Lock is a small app that allows me to switch on or off, the inbuilt camera on my laptop. If this camera is active, the green LED lights up when in use and flash to gain my attention, effective but annoying as I'd prefer it to just stay on when in use. As far as I can tell, it works but it can be got around if your laptop or computer was to be hacked: The same can happen with any mobile device.

A week ago I went to see a few films in Glasgow and one of them was Snowden. He's an interesting man, to some he's a hero and to others not, you just need to read the debates in the BTN Slack chat room to see how much so with some interesting opinions expressed, but for me, this film made me sit up and think about what could be happening with my devices, along with the latest announcements from the Houses of Parliament, and the snoopers charter.
So, after leaving the picture house (yes that's a cinema to some), I promptly searched in my emails for one sent to me from Cocologics, the developers of ProCamera.

Cocologics, have brought out a new product called Privacy Stickers for use on a variety of devices and are a simple but effective way of blanking off any camera lens that is behind a glass screen. An order was placed, and then I waited for it to drop through my letterbox.
A week later an envelope dropped through my door containing two sets of Privacy Stickers, two small ProCamera stickers and one large ProCamera sticker, all for a total of five Euros.

Installation

First of all, I cleaned the surface of my iPad Pro's screen with an alcohol based lens cleaner and allowed the residue to evaporate before attaching the Privacy sticker. It was a bit fiddly to get one off the sheet but this is normal with any kind of self adhesive label. Then came the first attempt to get it placed over the lens, not any easy task due to the size of the sticker. There is a small tab that is meant to allow you to grip the sticker with your nails but I found this next to impossible to get hold off due to the size of my 'muckle' fingers. I found it easier to 'squeeze' the sticker between two thumb nails to slightly bend it, this then allowed me to slide it into place above the lens then I pressed down to secure it.
What's really good about these stickers is you are able to remove and reuse them, when it comes to the device being replaced, as there is no glue or adhesive used: simply held in place by static and have stayed put so far.

I've only been using them for a short while on both my iPad Pro and iPhone 7+ and they normally have cases that enclose and cover the devices fully, but for the period over the holidays, I'm using my iPhone 7+ in an Apple silicone case so I will see if there are any problems during normal use. At least there are plenty of spares if either of them get knocked off over time, but I hope that wont be the case. Three sizes are available on the sheets, largest version suitable for my Macbook Pro too.

Credits: (Banner Image) Photo by g4ll4is / BY SA

Author

James Ormiston

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