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Your phone is most certainly capable of secretly listening to you. There are plenty of telecom standards that specify the exact nature of the protocols that can initiate silent calls without user alerting.
Google & Facebook are probably just spying on you in other ways though.
Google & Facebook are probably just spying on you in other ways though.
Also, based on what was reported, I doubt that I would rely on this study to believe that Facebook/Google aren't secretly monitoring audio data, but that is besides the point.
Phones that secretly listen to you are definitely not a myth.
Phones that secretly listen to you are definitely not a myth.
In a world where telecom providers are happily selling location data to random entities, you probably don't want to rely on that fact that silent/automated call-backs / ambient listening protocols will be solely used by emergency services or under judicial authority. Just saying.
Hell, that's before we get to the terror that is proprietary basebands, other proprietary firmware blobs & customized OS stacks. The entire chain is full of parts that will happily ignore alerting you but turn the mic on and call a random number.
As a side note, this is one of the "features" of the children's tracking watches (although this was done by the firmware intercepting SMS C&C - very trivial to exploit...)
The telecom standards that define this functionality are varied, and it's been nearly a decade since my job was to analyze those protocol documents, but most emergency call protocols will define operator call back & whether or not those calls can bypass user alerting.
The interaction between what is written in the standard, what features are supported by the network, how the handset responds to those features, how the OS interprets those signals and how those features might be abused by trusted entities is a whole thing.
While we're on the subject, the entire telecom network is a giant metadata surveillance system; the prime directive is to bill you for everything, and the second directive is to provide you with service.
It's spying on you constantly, and there are few restrictions on that data.
It's spying on you constantly, and there are few restrictions on that data.
Perhaps I should close with: My past experience in the IC left me with pretty in depth knowledge regarding telecom networks.
These days, I don't carry my phone around with me day-to-day and I mostly keep it turned off in another room.
These days, I don't carry my phone around with me day-to-day and I mostly keep it turned off in another room.
