svn commit: r284959 - in head: . share/man/man4 share/man/man9 sys/conf sys/dev/glxsb sys/dev/hifn sys/dev/random sys/dev/rndtest sys/dev/safe sys/dev/syscons sys/dev/ubsec sys/dev/virtio/random sy...

[John-Mark Gurney]

kpneal at pobox.com wrote this message on Sun, Jul 26, 2015 at 18:51 -0400:
> > Microphones don???t typically exist on virtual machines, servers, appliances/embedded gadgets, and trusted computers.  Nice idea for the desktop, but far from universal.
> 
> Personally, I _hate_ the idea of having a mic on my desktop. If the machine
> is hacked the mic can be turned against me. Same with cameras. If there
> is no mic (and no camera) then I can't be harmed in this way.

I should have been more clear on my use of the "mic"... I'm only
talking about using the mic input w/o a mic attached...  Even w/o
the mic attached, there are slight variations in the input due to
the ADC and pre-amp...

> There have been women who were blackmailed because they took their laptop
> with them when they were bathing. Obviously I'm not going to be blackmailed
> in this way (I'm a guy, for starters), but the principle holds. I want to
> be able to hold a private conversation in the same room as my computer and
> not have to worry about anyone listening in.

It's impossible for FreeBSD to attach a mic if there isn't one already
attached, nor will it ever be required to attach one to run FreeBSD.
Also, if one is hardwired, like in many laptops, using it for randomness
won't increase or decrease the likelyhood of the above happening...

-- 
  John-Mark Gurney				Voice: +1 415 225 5579

     "All that I will do, has been done, All that I have, has not."