I trust privacy settings because I trust GrapheneOS to do what says on the tin.

I'd rather disconnect the microphones. There's much more information in my speech than on my face and surroundings.

On my laptop I have a physical cover, but on my pixel 6 running graphene os the cam is built into the screen so its hard to cover without the screen being covered. I just use the off switch in Graphene for it and the mic.

I don't trust the camera to be 100% foolproof so I also stick something on the front of my laptop camera. For my phone I 3d printed a clip that snaps on and fits on top of my case.

Something like this but for my case.

https://makerworld.com/en/models/990796-iphone-front-camera-cover-certain-cases

Googly eye design on top would be funny.

Love the idea! It's a nice reminder to the casual onlooker that, yes, the average person does constantly point a camera at themselves and it can be exploited. It can even be a conversation starter with anyone bothering to ask.

That said, yes, I have a fair amount of trust that the cameras built into my devices are not constantly recording and phoning home. Not due to "privacy settings" though, which are often little more than privacy theatre. The devices in my household all run on GrapheneOS and Linux, and I monitor my network for unwanted traffic. I also do not run any software inherently hostile to privacy (e.g. anything by Meta or Microsoft), unless properly sandboxed and cut off from the internet.

Christopher Walken would be proud