it would be interesting to offer more optional native features. it would reduce the carbon footprint and the price of laptops purchased without these options but it would add complexity in the assembly line and therefore the cost of manufacturing
The extra process for optionally adding the webcam or not is likely a lot more expensive than the webcam module itself.
They are optical switches and they may not work if you put the bezel on funky so that idea may com frome something like that.
But anyway it is extremely easy to remove (pull of the magnetic bezel, take out 2 screws, disconnect cable, done or you can just disconnect the cable) the whole thing if you want so it’s not a big issue either way. I am kinda considering deleting it and putting a unifying receiver there instead.
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What’s your source for them being “optical switches”?
On the product page I just found:
Built-in hardware privacy switches give you complete control over access to the camera and microphones. Our embedded controller firmware is fully open source, and we don’t preload any extra software.
EDIT: Interesting fact: there’s no guide for camera and microphone replacement yet.
Some forum discussion here and my eyes.
The optical switches are hardware, nothing interrupting the light → power something interrupting the light → no power.
Pretty sure there is
You can see them on the camera board. They’re more commonly known as photointerrupters. They have a distinctive shape, you can spot them if you are familiar with them.
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Okay, found it. I’m not familiar woith those, that’s why I asked.
I was talking about the Framework Laptop 16. Is the module the same as the one used in the 13?
Framework said that the FW16 uses the same camera module.
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For air-gapped system, you are going to be opening it to maybe remove:
- Wifi card
- Possibly disconnect USB ports
- Remove Speakers
- Remove Mic
- Remove Camera
One would have to do the same with any off the shelf laptop, so FW laptop is no different, except the FW will be a lot quicker to achieve than an off the shelf laptop, because often, one has to take most of the laptop apart to get to the bits. With a FW the bits are quicker and easier to get to.
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If you don’t trust the hardware disconnects for camera and microphone, you can fully disconnect them without any tools. The screen bezel is held on with magnets, you can just pull it off and then unplug the data cable from the camera board.
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Or you could disconnect the main-board side while you are removing the wifi card and unplugging the speakers XD
Speakers are a risk too, these days?!
I am so compromised 
It was mentioned a few times so I listed it and it’s pretty much no extra effot once you got the bottom off.
There were some proof of concepts about exfiltrating data from an air-gapped system using sound slightly above hearing range, not sure that was ever used in the wild.
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Framework laptops seem ideal for a lot of use cases that require disabling hardware, particularly if it’s meant to be reversible. I certainly can’t readily physically disconnect the microphone on my other laptops with some major repair work!
Lenovo over there putting the power button on the webcam connector because reasons XD
Just recently I upgraded my Samsung phone, and it used sound transfer to make the initial connection to the old phone to set up the wifi transfer between the pair.
The use of sound for communication is nothing new, the use of sound to (covertly) exfiltrate data from an airgapped machine kinda is.
I know the idea has been around for quite some time.
But to covertly exfiltrate data it will still need to get a friendly app onto the air-gapped device, which will require some support from the owner/operator of said device, along with a suitable receiver for the exfiltrated data.
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The exfiltration of data through sound without an application running on the target device was probably something that relies on ultrasound emitted by the CPU. There has been a proof of concept a few years ago and honestly there is nothing you can do about it. But honestly, as long as you don’t carry around state secrets, it’s probably nothing you should worry about. Someone with the knowledge and technology to abuse that, they probably have about a thousand other ways to get to your data. Like hitting you over the head with a blunt object while the laptop is unlocked.