New MacBook Pro is Looking at You?
October 18th, 2008 | By Ian in Apple, Hardware, Rants | No Comments »
I’m in the Apple store right now playing with a new MacBook Pro. I love the backlit keyboard of the original MBP, so I decided to get it to light up in this bright showroom for a quick demo.
On the old MBP, you’d cover both speaker grilles at once. There is a light sensor in each one and the brightest of the two is used to determine how much to dim the screen and brighten the keyboard.
Covering the speakers in the new laptop didn’t work, so I tried placing my hands symmetrically all along the sides of the screen. The screen finally dimmed when I slid my fingers across the top bezel above the screen.
Whenever I blocked the camera’s eye with my finger, the screen would dim. This was a troubling revelation. If the MBP is using its camera as an ambient light sensor, that means it is effectively always on and collecting image data even when the recording light is off. This would be a significant departure from the original built-in iSights where Apple claimed the hardware that drives the camera is so tightly linked to the indicator LED that one could not record you without your knowledge.
I busted out my credit card for some fine-tuned testing. I slowly slid it across the top of the bezel and found that it didn’t always dim when I covered the camera. In fact, it only dimmed when the small lighter spot just to the left of the camera was covered. I had assumed that this was the green indicator LED for the camera. A quick trip to Photo Booth confirmed that the LED is in fact on the right side of the camera.
So, rest assured that your new MacBook and MacBook Pro are not constantly recording you as you write emails in bed with your hair in curlers. The placement of the light sensor may cause concern at first, but a bit of investigation quickly indicates that there is little to worry about.