It turns out that it is pretty easy to turn on and off your web camera light in Linux (and most other operating system systems). You might have to install uvcdynctrl but it’s available in most Linux distros.

uvcdynctrl -d video0 -s 'LED1 Mode' 0

While much of the press focuses on netferious uses of web camera lights there are legitimate reasons to use the indicator – for example to flash or light up when an email or message comes in or a download conpletes. Sometimes a video device might be /dev/video 1 etc but you can find that by running this command.

uvcdynctrl -l