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Is Home Depot using webcams to track website visitors?

3 pointsby Treblemakerover 3 years ago
I typically browse in Firefox with ublock0 and noscript. However certain commercial sites require too many holes in the filtering and so I will use Edge in &quot;Private Browsing&quot; mode.<p>Today while searching for a product at the Home Depot web site, Kaspersky popped up a message that &quot;Microsoft Edge is using the Webcam&quot;. I was able to repeat this after closing the browser and then visiting the site again. That electrical tape over the camera proved its value today.<p>Home Depot has already faced criticism and a lawsuit for using facial recognition in their stores [1] This seems next-level evil. Has anyone else encountered this?<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pbwt.com&#x2F;data-security-law-blog&#x2F;home-depot-joins-facebook-and-others-in-facing-suit-for-scanning-faces

3 comments

version_fiveover 3 years ago
When I use firefox or chrome for e.g. a google meet call, I have to explicitly allow the browser to use my camera every time in get on a call. Does edge default to automatically allowing a site to use the camera? That would be a bigger concern for me.
josephcsibleover 3 years ago
Websites can&#x27;t use your camera without your browser going along with it, which browsers universally won&#x27;t unless you give explicit per-site approval.
chiefalchemistover 3 years ago
Could be false positive. Have you tried anything other than Kaspersky? What about using a different PC?<p>It&#x27;s the internet. Anything is possible. But one is not a pattern or trend.