FBI can listen to non-phone conversations via cell phone microphone

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

OK, this is scary.

The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.

I don't recall us discussing this before...

[eris esoteric]

TOLD YA the things were EVIL. I TOLD ya.

[phoenixx]

Ugh.

[drmomentum[$]]

I've taken to typing all my conversations and submitting them to the Bush administration.

Just in case it turns out I or someone I know is a terrorist. I've got some suspicions about a coworker's 3-year-old son. He has that terrorist look about him.

[eris esoteric]

Here you go, JP, just in case you need it...

[jgibson2[$]]

This is disturbing for many reasons. I really don't think the FBI is going to have any interest in my phone calls, but I still don't like the decision.

Another scary thought is that if the FBI can do it, so can pretty much any one else with enough technical skill. Again, not really worried about my personal cell, because it pretty much lives in my car. They want to listen to my #3 child babbling, they're quite welcome. This does mean that there is essentially no privacy anywhere that there's a cell phone.

[erik_kosberg]

As long as they get a warrant signed by a judge with a pulse, fine by me. They can start off by surveilling the criminal activity in the West Wing.

[realtraveller]

Anyone who uses a cell phone around other people doesn't really care about his/her privacy. The nature of the thing is that I or anyone else within earshot can hear all the details of that conversation about your recent hysterectomy, why you're leaving your husband, your kid's failing grades or your financial woes. I'm always amazed at what people talk about in public not caring that other people can hear them.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Kathy - this isn't listening to a phone conversation, it's listening to your live, person-to-person conversation via your cell phone. Meaning your phone could be sitting on your nightstand, just sitting there, not actively connected for a phone call, and yet your pillow talk could be heard.

[realtraveller]

I know, but they had a search warrant approved by a judge. Now if just your average hacker could do it, that would be a different thing.

My comments were prompted by a phone conversation I heard a few days ago while in line at the bank. The guy was talking to his wife (perhaps soon to be ex-wife) begging her to take him back, than he would never stray again, etc. etc. **

I'm thinking "Don't you realize that all the rest of us, everyone in this relatively quiet bank lobby can hear all about your supposedly private life"?"

Because of this sort of thing, in public, I use my cell phone only for logistics. "When should I pick you up?" "When are you coming home from Katie's house?" that sort of thing. Really personal conversations take place only on the landline in my home.

**Come to think of it, I wonder how much angrier she got when she learned he was doing all this confessing on a cell phone in a bank lobby.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Yeah, I've heard cell conversations like that too. But my big concern here was the use of a cell phone as a baby monitor, where NON-CELL conversations could be heard. Whole 'nuther kettle of fish, since you could speak in an area where privacy would be assumed, but might not be. While the judge had to approve a search warrant, we've all seen examples of when search warrants were applied in questionable circumstances.

[jgibson2[$]]

Not only that, but if the technology exists, it will be used - with or without a warrant. Not just by the government, either.

[hadassahchana[$]]

Yep, Judy's point is the one which most scares me about this.