WebEx on the MacBook turns on the camera for no good reason, and doesn't let you turn it off.
I had a conference call yesterday, and as usual with these corporate time-wasters, there was a powerpoint deck intended to distract the audience from the carbon-14 decaying in their bones. I fired it up on the MacBook which I use for WebEx, because it doesn't work on Ubuntu and I've already wasted more than enough time trying to fix it. So it was going on (and on) repeating previous presentations, and I proceeded to try to get other work done.
When I proceeded to fire up Photo Booth to take a picture of an error I was getting on my iPhone I was told "The camera is already in use." That's weird, I thought. Sure enough, the little green light was on next to the camera. So I proceeded to close down apps. Finally nothing was left but WebEx, and when I shut that down the light turned off. Hmmm. So I started WebEx back up and started searching for the option to turn off the camera. And I kept searching. I couldn't find it, and that made me feel kind of dumb, so I sent in a support request to WebEx. Their response:
Hello Chuck,Waitasecond. "WebEx does not have any control over this"? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Do they not have the flipping source code? WTFH? And then they recommend that I go into a console and hobble my operating system's camera support? Are they high?
Thank you for choosing WebEx.
Since you are using a built in camera, it starts automatically in the meeting. WebEx does not have any control over this and there is no option in the Meeting Manager to disable this feature.
However, if you are the host, you can uncheck the "Video" option while scheduling the session. You can uncheck this option even in the middle of the meeting.
To disable the webcam, please contact Mac Support or check in Mac Forums. For your convenience, I have provided a link which discuss about turning off webcam.
Disclaimer: The URL below will take you to a non-WebEx Web Site. WebEx does not control or is responsible for the information given outside of WebEx Web Sites.
http://osxdaily.com/2007/03/26/how-to-disable-the-built-in-isight-camera/
Please let me know if there is anything I can do to further assist you.
Regards
WebEx Technical Support.
Of course, that's just bullshit. They allow the host of the meeting to control the cameras of the attendees, but they don't allow you to control the camera on your own flipping machine. This is a backassward privacy policy. I have no idea or control over where my video is going – it could be recorded, it could be broadcast: millions could be watching me absently pick my nose.
There is now a piece of tape covering the webcam on my MacBook. When I first used the iPhone I thought that the camera warnings when using an app that touches the camera were silly, but now I greatly appreciate them.
Bad WebEx. I'm still waiting for you to go out of business, you silly $3.2B behemoth.
30 comments:
It looks like I'm not the only person to encounter this.
I hate WebEx, but we use it all the time. It's a guaranteed way to piss away two-four hours of your day.
From the WebEx site: Share presentations, documents, applications—and anything else on your desktop, including Chuck picking his nose—in real-time. Your attendees will become paranoid, like they're in the same room with with you, and might put black electric tape over the camera.
Heck, I'm investing in Cisco. They are pushing us into the future of big brotherhood!
This has been a problem for me too.. I don't know if someone is watching or not. For now a physical tape has been the best way to turn it off.
Of course, not to mention the battery drain that happens, when the camera is on.
Looks like Webex slapped out a beta code out in the public!!
happened to me today...
a properly applied postit note was my privacy guard (stuck on cover and folded over to cover the lense (I didn't want goo on my lens cover.
What about starting an other application that ises the camera before webex? photobooth for example. Webex should not be able to grab the video flow in that case.
I can confirm that loading photobooth first works! tested!
http://lost-in-management.blogspot.com/2009/03/macbook-isight-camera-enabled-by-webex.html
This is also a problem on Lenovo laptops. I cant not believe a company would create a teleconference application that automatically displays a camara image. Lets talk about the lawsuit that is going to occur when some underage kid is on a conference call discussing a school project, unknowlingly displaying themselves naked. Maybe then webex will add some functionality to turn off the camara after that happens!!!
Dear Greg from Cisco: If Webex has since been fixed, I'll be more than happy to report that update. Cisco has my contact information from when I submitted this bug as well.
I thought Cisco fixed this after the incident with one of their SEs who had his laptop camera turn on during a meeting he joined from his hotel room, which treated the entire audience to a view of him wacking off.
Now THAT is an epic story. As a footnote, my employer has ditched WebEx for PGi, so I don't have to use WebEx anymore. No more waiting to download the meeting manager!
As of March 10th this is still not fixed. So much for CISCO fixing it. But now with cisco creating bigger and badder routers for increased bandwidth they have no need to worry about consuming to much bandwidth to fix it.
OK....Chuck did you know that the latest version of WebEx has this fixed and probably u r on a verrrrrrrrrryyy old version for this not to work.
U might wanna speak with tech support and find out wat ur site version is!!
Unknown, you may be right - this may be an old version of Webex.
Which raises the question: why on earth are there multiple versions of Webex - on the Internet? That sounds like a problem Webex has created for itself. And now Webex can deal with that problem, and the consequences - a bad user experience, and a bad reputation.
Well Chuck, I dont know wat company u work with but looks like you have been living in a world of your own.
Reason: Every software goes through its stages.
For eg. A security software, im sure u will agree,is not wat it used to be 4 years ago. Things change!!
But if a person decides to stick on to a version that was released ages ago for reason like , well, cost effective or coz he/she is still using other softwares that was released 4 yrs ago... wat can the security software company do!? The version he/she is on is probably obsolete.
Its the same with WebEx. You company must have decided to stay on a lock down environment coz they cant get accustomed to change for watsoever reason!! Ever thought about that??
Gosh, unknown, I use something called the Internet, and it's been around for a while now.
To make my point: which version of Gmail are you using? Which version of Facebook? Which version of YouTube? I'll even make an allowance in case you've spent the past ten years in solitary confinement: which version of Hotmail are you using?
The answer is: the latest version, which is the only version there is. Having customer-specific versions of web sites leads to exactly this kind of problem, and it's a problem that Webex has created for itself.
Webex could fix it, but I bet they won't - they're probably addicted to licensing revenue where they need to periodically blackmail an additional lump of cash from their paying subscribers in order to get the latest changes. Or it's because their infrastructure isn't set up to put all of the accounts in a single place (a single-tenant database, in other words). Or it's because they LIKE having to support multiple versions of their software and having confused, unhappy users.
I don't know for sure, but I know who's responsible for this bad user experience, and it's not the laws of computer science and project management, it's not solar flares, it's not their customers, and it's not me. It's Webex, it's their problem, and thankfully it's not mine anymore because I don't have to use it. See, we adapted to change, and that meant switching to something better (and cheaper).
And yes, as long as Webex leaves this bug unfixed on servers they run, running their software, Webex still has this problem. You won't know in advance - it depends on "what version" the person running the meeting is using. And that sucks.
'LOCK DOWN ENVIRONMENT' what part of that do u not understand. I hope and pray that you arent with the IT Dept. coz if u are - well thats just a disaster.
Im glad you moved away from WebEx -i still think your company hasnt moved away though, they just decided not to tell u!!
'A frog in a well does not know the great sea.'
Webex chooses to provide locked-down versions of Webex to its customers. That is their choice - and it has consequences. In this case, one consequence is the privacy of the people that use their software (which usually aren't even their customers). The second consequence is a bad reputation for Webex, which they have earned.
I found this post after googling during a webex conference. As of June 8 2010, this still occurs. The photo booth suggestion above worked though.
Lame. VERY lame.
What a brazen invasion of privacy by Cisco. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Cisco Webex execs are acting in a very negligent fashion by allowing this product flaw to exist for over two years.
They have full control over whether they access iSight cameras, and should make this a user option.
FWIW, there are play/pause buttons that let you toggle whether you're sending video or not.
It's not ideal, it'd be much better if you could turn it off, or if it at least prompted you to acknowledge that that moderator has enabled webcams.
I just noticed the same thing. Our company is using 8.5 and that is labeled copyright 2010.
I am really worried because you can tell this is still going to their centralized servers even when you it says "not sending". The view only gets choppy on the camera when it is streaming the data onto the network which it is. I don't really want to have my privacy invaded more or I would run some additional bandwidth tests to verify this.
This is still a problem with webex ver 8.5 running on a W7 (lenovo) as of Sept 1, 2011.
June 12, 2014 Latest version of WEBEX just installed and it still does it. Windows 8.1
Is the microphone on as well?
June 12, 2014 Latest version of WEBEX just installed and it still does it. Windows 8.1
Is the microphone on as well?
I found how to turn it off. This would be easier with a picture, but I will try to describe.
In participants panel, where your video is showing, there should be a gear icon in upper right corner. Hover your mouse over it and it should pop up 'Set video options'.
Click the gear and in the Video Options window, below your video feed, uncheck the box 'Start my video in all meetings'
Click OK and say goodbye to participants watching you scratch yourself during meetings.
Hi, LousyTourist, that doesn't work. I have that box unchecked, and yet my video starts in all meetings anyway. I just put a sticky note on top of the camera.
Post a Comment