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It's been a not-unusual practice among privacy&security people for a long time.

Starting around 20 years ago, hackers spying on people through their webcams was publicized (such as with the cDc's Back Orifice, IIRC). For a while, webcams sometimes had physical doors/shutters over them. More recently, there was a boost of awareness, when Zuckerberg was seen covering his own camera.

But some companies presumably wanted you to be accustomed to their proprietary-ish videoconferencing, or to be accustomed to large wireless data plans, with network effects, and so they perhaps wanted to encourage front-camera use. Also, a door/shutter doesn't look sleek.

(Next time I have a physical office, I'll probably hang a little basket outside it, to give away trimmings of black and white labelmaker tapes, for this camera-covering purpose.)



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