diff --git a/pkg/webhook/webhook.go b/pkg/webhook/webhook.go
index 5b7ed3aac..06e9642a7 100644
--- a/pkg/webhook/webhook.go
+++ b/pkg/webhook/webhook.go
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"net/http"
 	"path/filepath"
+	"slices"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
@@ -271,11 +272,12 @@ func (m *podMutator) injectProxySidecarContainer(containers []corev1.Container,
 }
 
 func shouldInjectProxySidecar(pod *corev1.Pod) bool {
+	positiveAnnotationVal := []string{"true", "1", "yes"}
 	if len(pod.Annotations) == 0 {
 		return false
 	}
-	_, ok := pod.Annotations[InjectProxySidecarAnnotation]
-	return ok
+	val, ok := pod.Annotations[InjectProxySidecarAnnotation]
+	return ok && slices.Contains(positiveAnnotationVal, val)
 }
 
 // getSkipContainers gets the list of containers to skip based on the annotation