Web Cam hacks, dangerous?

Well most of us should know that web cams in laptops etc. can be hacked, if not, you must be petrified right now.

A good thing to prevent people from spying on you or taking candid photos of you, is that web cams usually have a bright red or blue light that turns on when the web cam is in operation.

The danger is if the manufacturer had designed the light on a different circuit, i.e. power is not needed to go through the LED before the camera gets power, this is because it makes it possible to turn off the light, whilst the web cam is in operation.

I assume that most manufactures would be smart enough to design it to prevent spying but I wouldn't know for sure, sorry.