[joshavant]

Without having looked at any wiring schematics for the iSight module... does anyone know if it's even possible to apply power to the iSight hardware module, without the LED becoming illuminated?

I would presume the LED is wired directly to the module's power. Then, it would be physically impossible to turn on the camera, without the LED becoming illuminated. (And, in my opinion, obviate much of the need for these silly stickers.)

It would also be an odd design for Apple to make the camera's LED indicator an independently controllable component.

[s_q_b]

Yes, you can activate the camera without activating the LED. The LED is not directly wired to the power supply.[0]

[0]http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/12/18...

Edit in Reply: Not necessarily. It's probably still possible on modern Apple hardware, albeit with a lot of firmware hacking, according to the authors of the paper: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/117937/how-to-use-i...

[kaolinite]

Well, not exactly. At one point you were able to, but the flaw has been fixed for over 5 years now. It affected cameras on some Macs sold between 2006 and 2009 I believe.

Here's the paper describing the flaw: https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2...

[s_q_b]

Not necessarily. It's probably still possible on modern Apple hardware, albeit with a lot of firmware hacking, according to the authors of the paper: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/117937/how-to-use-i....

[tokenizerrr]

Weirdly(?) enough a lot of laptop cameras (and other devices) have their led wired/powered separately and controlled by a driver.

[lechevalierd3on]

I thought that a few years ago someone succeed to take picture with the LED off.

[david_shaw]

A brief Google search indicates that, yes, it can be circumvented.