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Comment by orbifold | Hacker News Reader

It is established by now that various government agencies all over the world routinely monitor web traffic, tap phones and install trojans on computers. There is no doubt in my mind that an internet connected listening device would be exploited.

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So smartphone, tablets, laptops are also exploited? They all have a microphone and they're never off.

I fail to see how this is any more a possible privacy breach than my iPhone that's laying right next to me right now.

The only difference I see is that the battery of a smartphone would drain rapidly if it was constantly recording and uploading the recordings to the cloud. But you are right, a smartphone is a device used to monitor you and people whose freedom depends on that knowledge, like radical political activists are aware of that. And yes laptops are exploited. To give an example: The German government has developed a number of trojans for Windows over the years and the BKA routinely uses them for targeted surveillance.

That's not proof of my privacy being violated though.

The probability that my privacy was compromised by a mandatory court subpoena is very low, hence the person used "rarely touched privacy".

Premising your argument about government agencies all over the world is argumentum ad absurdum.

So what you're saying is that you don't have proof of your claims. Ok, got it.

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