Stop Using Camera Covers for Your MacBook

If you’re worried about your MacBook’s webcam spying on you, you might be tempted to buy a cheap, plastic camera cover. You can get them for just around $5, but you should actually steer clear of them. The cons far outweigh the pros.

Why you should avoid cheap camera covers

When something is as expensive and hard-to-repair as a MacBook, you shouldn’t use cheap accessories that can damage them. That cheap camera cover may give you some peace of mind, but it also carries the risk of repair bill: With the cover mounted, you can damage your MacBook’s screen when you slam it shut. Apple builds MacBooks to be as thin and light as possible, and as a result, its fault tolerances are pretty low. If you stick a lump of plastic in between the trackpad and the display, you can end up damaging the screen and the trackpad if you’re not careful.

Repairing that kind of damage is expensive even if you have an insurance plan like AppleCare+, and it’s not worth the risk. (Sliding plastic covers also tend to leave scratch marks on the screen.) That cheap, $5 accessory isn’t useful enough to risk damaging a nice laptop that costs hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. Especially when there are better options.

What to use to cover your MacBook’s camera

There are other ways to stop your MacBook’s camera from being used without your permission, and none of them will damage your laptop. If you’re hell bent on using a physical cover, you should consider connecting the MacBook to an external display, and keep the laptop in clamshell mode. That way, its camera is always covered and you get to use the laptop with a bigger screen. If that’s not an option, you can consider using electrical tape to cover the camera. This is more of a permanent solution—no one wants to peel and un-peel the tape every time you make a video call—so consider tape only if you’re not going to use the webcam and are okay with sticking it on the screen.

Most people don’t need to do that, though, because your MacBook has a few software solutions to help ensure your camera isn’t spying on you. The simplest thing you can do is notice the LED next to the webcam on your MacBook—it’s a security feature built into your Mac and it’s very hard, if not impossible, to bypass: When the light is on, your camera is active. You can also review your camera permissions by going to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Camera and denying camera access to apps that don’t need it. A similar preference is also available in your browser’s settings page, so be sure to revoke camera access for sites you don’t use. Lastly, you can download apps like OverSight, which will alert you the moment the camera on your Mac is being used.