granted, it has been a while since our last newsletter. we value your time and only send updates when we have exciting things to share:

silver CamTag

we've experimented a lot in the past months. we played with special colors and switched to a dye cutting machine that cuts more accurately than ever before. silver CamTag privacy stickers not only look gorgeous, they are spot on!

silver tabtag 

we added new silver tabtag designs as well, so you can decorate your devices without having to worry about residue in case you want to remove these adhesive free stickers and apply them somewhere else.

glowing tabtag sale

macbooks equipped with a glowing apple logo are disappearing, unfortunately. that's why we're offering all glowing tabtag designs at half price. we stopped making them, so get one while the stock lasts. 

tabtag artist plugyou did it again! a big fan himself, he created a collection of his favorite superheroes.

now available as reusable laptop stickers and privacy decals.

plugyou is a philadelphia-based product designer with over 15 years of experience in all things procrastinating, and a soft spot for illustration; in particular pop-culture references and characters.

we are thrilled he created some really fun illustrations available as reusable laptop stickers and privacy decals.

according to an article published in forbes social media app tiktok has been able to access information users copied to the clipboard, posing a serious privacy risk. countless other apps have been caught abusing users' privacy as well. 

apple recently fixed the clipboard vulnerability issue, underlining the importance of protecting one's privacy. 

 a number of kickstarter backers asked for CamTag designs in plain colors. i made a few color sets including black and white and hope you like them.

with the rise of google, facebook and amazon in recent years private companies are implementing surveillance and data collection technologies at a faster pace than governments are able to regulate them.

i wrote a blog post based on articles published in the guardian including a dystopian short film that made me more aware of the extent to which our data is being collected. 

The Guardian and 16 other media organizations brought to light that spyware sold by the surveillance company NSO, Pegasus, has been abused by authoritarian governments to target activists, journalists, and politicians globally.

Pegasus is a malware that allegedly can be secretly installed on a targeted phone with just a missed call, enabling to access photos, emails, turn on your cameras, record calls and activate microphones. This makes it more invasive and dangerous than the algorithms of Google, Amazon and Facebook, turning our phone into a spy in our pocket. Spyware as powerful as Pegasus not only threatens the user of each smart-phone, it puts their social, political and economical connections and democracy itself in danger.

A massive data leak contains a list of about 50,000 phone numbers of potential targets identified by NSO’s clients like the governments of Hungary, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Mexico and India. NSO claims to only sell their surveillance technology to governments that have been carefully vetted for their human rights record and for the purpose of tracking terrorists an criminals. Looking at some of the clients one might ask who decides over who these terrorists and criminals are.

In a recent interview with the Guardian whistleblower Edward Snowden states:

The technology cannot be rolled back, technology is not going anywhere … it is going to be cheaper, it is going to be more effective, it is going to be more available. If we do nothing, we sort of sleepwalk into a total surveillance state where we have both a super state that has unlimited capacity to apply force with an unlimited ability to know and [therefore be able to] target [that] force – and that’s a very dangerous combination … This is the direction of the future.

Surveillance technology cannot be rolled back, but it needs to be regulated and legislated. Only social pressure caused by informed citizens has the power to force governments into political action to create the legal boundaries necessary to protect democracy. 

it's this time of year: sunshine, holidays, beach, ice cream... sweet!

to make things even sweeter we just started our summer sale.

50% off everything

enter SUMMER21 for a sweet 50% discount all weekend.

after watching this short film on how much data private companies are able to gather about you (data that we willingly give them in some cases), you might be forgiven for thinking that, never mind some far flung future, we are living in a full-on dystopia right now. - jason kottke

with the rise of google, facebook and amazon in the past twenty years private companies are implementing surveillance and data collection technologies at a faster pace than governments are able to regulate them. these companies are accumulating an unprecedented amount of user data, making huge profits off behavioral monitoring, analysis, targeting and prediction. dr. shoshana zuboff coined this undemocratic, exploitative and little understood practice surveillance capitalism. this new form of exploitation doesn’t only monitor our private lives, it aims to shape, predict, direct and control every aspect of our everyday life.

we are no longer anonymous citizens. not only is our online behavior being traced, we are increasingly recorded on video and audio. while china is the global leader in video surveillance and facial recognition, observing and rating the behavior of their citizens, london has installed an estimated 420.000 CCTV cameras making it a test case for facial recognition in democracies. police and fire departments in the united states have partnered with amazon’s controversial ring camera network.

with tech giants insisting that their technology is too complex to be legislated while  billions are spent in lobbying against transparency and privacy regulations, dr. zuboff makes a point that we and future generations must step up to the colossal challenge of breaking down this framework of total control – that is polarising world-views, increasing fundamentalism, and nurturing echo chambers and distrust – and work on a better future.

during my career as a designer i have always been fascinated by gradients and the three dimensional effects that can be created with them.

minimal design is yet another passion of mine, so i created six new black and white gradient designs, available both as adhesive-free laptop stickers and privacy stickers.

buy more / save more

i just added a shop-wide volume discount that allows you to buy any combination of designs and products at a discount of up to 50%.

this is an experiment and i don't know for how long it will be running, so seize this opportunity to stock up on your macbook decals and privacy stickers.

new shipping options

as of today, you can choose between shipping with or without tracking.

thank you for your support and happy summer!

since the revelations by whistle-blower edward snowden it is well known that intelligence agencies are engaging in surveillance on a global scale by activating other people’s cameras and recording them without their knowledge or consent. 

remote access trojans (RAT) have been used for over two decades to gain control over stranger's cameras and spy on them. 

even cameras built in apple’s macbooks that allegedly couldn’t be turned on without activating the indicator light were hacked, disabling the indicator light while the camera was recording.

many apps ask for permission to access the cameras on your phone or tablet. this means that these apps can secretly take photos or record you. 

why you should cover the cameras on your devices

1. security professionals do it^{1 2}
2. computers, tablets and phones have been hacked before
3. camera vulnerabilities happened in the past and will happen again in the future
4. webcam access can be used by hackers to gain further control over your devices

here's what you get by using a CamTag

1. peace of mind. you can be sure that nobody can spy on you via the cameras on your devices when they are covered
2. a flexible way of protecting your privacy. CamTags are glue-free and can be applied and removed multiple times
3. a personal touch added to your devices. you can style your phone, tablet and laptop with a variety of designs
4. custom branded CamTags to showcase and strengthen your brand