Disable build-in iSight Camera in OS X up to 10.6

Paranoid people might dislike the glaring iSight camera in recent Apple computers. Apart from the option to put a sticker on the camera hole, the following script disables the according driver suppressing the OS to interact with the camera (credits go to cense@techslaves.org):

-- Intel Mac iSight Disabler
-- Tested on OS X 10.6.2
-- Tested on 1st generation MacBook
-- Version 3.5
-- Credit to fdoc from techslaves.org forum for Snow Leopard fix
-- All this does is change permission on the iSight driver files. From normal 'a+r' and 'u+rx' when enabled to 'a-rwx' when disabled.
-- cense@techslaves.org

tell application "Finder"
    set os_version to version
end tell

display dialog "Intel Mac iSight Disabler
brought to you by techslaves.org.

Version 3.5
Support for Snow Leopard

You need to restart applications which use the iSight driver(s) after applying these settings." buttons {"Enable iSight", "Disable iSight"} with icon stop

set userChoice to button returned of result

set iSightDrivers to "/System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeUSBVDCDigitizer.component/Contents/MacOS/QuickTimeUSBVDCDigitizer /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreMediaIOServicesPrivate.framework/Versions/A/Resources/VDC.plugin/Contents/MacOS/VDC "

if os_version ≥ 10.6 then
    set iSightDrivers to iSightDrivers & "/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreMediaIOServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/VDC.plugin/Contents/MacOS/VDC"
end if

if userChoice = "Enable iSight" then
    do shell script "/bin/chmod a+r " & iSightDrivers & "; /bin/chmod u+rx " & iSightDrivers     with administrator privileges
else if userChoice = "Disable iSight" then
    do shell script "/bin/chmod a-rwx " & iSightDrivers with administrator privileges
end if
  1. how about for Lion? :)

    • I tried Lion. Unfortunately I was too disappointed with it, so I downgraded back to Snow Leopard for the time being. I explained my reasons here.

Leave a Comment