dx-packages team mailing list archive

[Jamie Strandboge <jamie@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Lars, yes the microphone source. Another use case that may be worth
considering is video recording-- most of the time it will accompany
audio recording, but it is conceivable it video-only recording is
possible too.

My initial thought is that it would result in a red icon (or whatever)
appearing in every Ubuntu screencast that included real-time audio. That
seems like a bad idea. If it's okay for a screencast app to record the
screen without befouling it first, why shouldn't it be okay for it to
record audio too?

Matthew, screencast (I guess you mean screen capture?) apps are a
special case and not supported by Mir or application confinement at this
time (ie, no app can perform a screen capture right now on Touch). I'm
not sure why it actually is bad that the icon be read in the screen
capture (but maybe it is). Looking towards converged, my understanding
is that screen capture apps will be trusted, not confined and not
available in the app store. IMHO, I think for now we just always adjust
the icon (or whatever) to close this bug and then file a wishlist
feature request bug to add an inhibit API for the visual cue (or
something) that would only be available to trusted and/or unconfined
apps. (I can imagine a DBus call in indicator-sound:
InhibitRecordingVisualCue and UninhibityRecordingVisualCue-- screen
capture apps can use this all they want and appstore apps are blocked
from using it). In concrete terms-- for 13.10 implement the visual cue
and for 14.04 implement the feature to inhibity the visual cue.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of DX
Packages, which is subscribed to indicator-sound in Ubuntu.
Matching subscriptions: dx-packages
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1224756

Title:
  pulseaudio should give a visual indication when it is recording

Status in “indicator-sound” package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete
Status in “pulseaudio” package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid
Status in “indicator-sound” source package in Saucy:
  Incomplete
Status in “pulseaudio” source package in Saucy:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  David and the security team (inspired by an observation from Rick)
  discussed that when recording, pulseaudio should somehow unobtrusively
  show the user that it is recording. The easiest thing to do would be
  for pulseaudio to alert indicator-sound which would then turn its icon
  red (similar to indicator-message turning blue with new messages).
  Marking 'high' because apps with access to pulseaudio can currently
  eavedrop on users. If the app is allowed to do networking (the default
  for apps), then it can ship that information off to a server
  somewhere.

  Note 1, the alert to indicator-sound must happen via the out of
  process pulseaudio server and not the confined app itself to be
  effective.

  Note 2, we should consider how to enforce this for foreground apps
  only. Application lifecycle should probably handle this for 13.10
  (apps are suspended if not in foreground or if the screensaver is on),
  but we don't want an app on the converged device to record in the
  background when the user isn't paying attention. Example eavesdropping
  attack: start recording only when the screensaver is on (perhaps
  inhibiting the screensaver during recording would be enough).

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-sound/+bug/1224756/+subscriptions