Webcam covers: what they are and the 5 best

What makes the best webcam covers

Safe to close the lid: Thin enough to shut over, or quick to peel off: Apple sets 0.1 mm for MacBooks.
Opens in a second: A slider uncovers the lens for a video call without peeling and re-sticking.
Leaves no residue: Holds on the bezel through a trip, then comes off clean from laptop, tablet or phone.
One for every device: Enough covers in the pack for the laptop, tablet and phone you travel with.

Covers answer camfecting: hacking into a webcam and switching it on without the owner’s permission. The word joins camera and infecting.

Physical, not software: Software blocks can be overridden by advanced attackers, so blocking the lens itself is the reliable step.
Tape, the old fix: A piece of tape over the lens is the common improvised cover; EFF calls its stickers far better than masking tape.
Phones and tablets too: OffGrid and SLNT sell their covers for the cameras on phones, tablets and computers alike.
Who makes them: Targus, Kikkerland, OffGrid, SLNT and the Electronic Frontier Foundation sell covers from their own stores.

An adhesive base: Most covers stick to the bezel around the lens; OffGrid and Kikkerland use 3M adhesive backing.
A sliding door: A small shutter slides across a window in the base, so the lens opens for a call and closes after it.
Re-stickable stickers: Low-tack stickers peel off the lens and go back on; EFF’s adhesive is made to leave no gummy residue.
Magnets instead of glue: Kensington’s Eyebloc cover for MacBooks held on with the laptop’s built-in magnets, with no tape or glue.
Nano suction: Kensington’s Nanobloc gripped by nano suction rather than adhesive and could be rinsed, dried and reused.

Adhesive sliders: A base and shutter in one piece; Targus lists its Spy Guard at 1.56 × 0.56 × 0.05 in.
Stickers: Flat, reusable tabs; EFF sells seven on a business-card-size sheet.
Magnetic sliders: They cling to a laptop’s internal magnets; Kensington made its Eyebloc model for 2014–2020 MacBooks.
Built-in shutters: Some webcams ship with one; Logitech’s C920s has a privacy shutter you flip closed to go off camera.
Tape: The improvised cover; it has to be peeled off for every call and can leave gum on the lens.

Thickness: Apple says a cover on a MacBook should be no thicker than 0.1 mm, about one sheet of printer paper.
No residue: Apple also asks for a cover that leaves no adhesive behind; Kikkerland and EFF say theirs leave none.
Light sensor clear: Apple warns that covering the camera can block the ambient light sensor behind auto-brightness and True Tone.
Size of the bezel: Check the strip above your screen: Targus’s Spy Guard needs 1.56 in of width.
Device list: Read the maker’s list: Targus’s 3 Pack lists PCs, its 10 Pack PCs, Macs, Chromebooks and Android devices.
Covers per pack: Targus sells one, three or ten; a pack can cover the laptop, tablet and phone you travel with.

Before you close the lid: Apple says to remove any cover thicker than 0.1 mm before closing a MacBook; the gap to the keyboard is very tight.
Any cover, any Mac: A second Apple note says to take off camera, palm rest and keyboard covers before closing the display.
Face ID on phones: Moonlock notes that a lens cover can interfere with face recognition on some iPhones.
Magnets near a Mac: Moonlock also warns that magnetic covers may disturb a Mac’s magnetic sensors.
The green light: An iPhone shows a green dot when an app uses the camera; Apple says a Mac’s camera can’t run without its green light.
Check permissions: On a Mac, System Settings lists which apps may use the camera, and access can be turned off per app.

Display damage: Apple says closing a Mac notebook with a camera cover installed might damage the display.
Most sliders are thick: Targus lists its Spy Guard at 0.05 in deep, far above Apple’s 0.1 mm limit for MacBooks.
Lights can be defeated: Johns Hopkins researchers turned off the light on the iSight cameras of some pre-2008 MacBooks and iMacs while recording.
Only the lens: A cover hides the picture, not the sound; Mark Zuckerberg taped his MacBook’s microphone as well as its camera.
Reuse and cleaning: Kensington said its Nanobloc could be washed with water, dried and stuck back on.

2013: Eyebloc, a U.S. privacy company, is founded to make webcam covers; it later appears on ABC’s Shark Tank.
December 2013: The Washington Post reports that FBI surveillance software can capture images by activating a computer’s camera.
December 2013: Johns Hopkins researchers show how to record from older MacBook and iMac webcams with the light off; the paper follows at USENIX Security in August 2014.
April 2016: FBI Director James Comey says he keeps tape over the camera of his personal laptop.
June 2016: A photo shows Mark Zuckerberg’s MacBook Pro with its webcam and microphone taped over.
June 2020: Kensington partners with Eyebloc to sell its magnetic MacBook cover and its Nanobloc cover.