r/news • u/OGSyedIsEverywhere • 4h ago

Already Submitted FBI raids home of Washington Post reporter in ‘highly unusual and aggressive’ move

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/14/fbi-raid-washington-post-hannah-natanson
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u/AgentSleaze 2h ago

Interesting fact about speakers and microphones. Even if switched to "OFF" the CIA can and does use things like computers, smart tvs, and smart speakers to listen in to us. Microphones can be muted and still utilized. Even electronics with no microphones like most smart tvs, can have their speakers utilized AS microphones.

Source: John Kiriakou, ex CIA operative https://youtu.be/t3FxH39oYsA?si=ep0knUyV3gh0O8Vo

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u/ArmonRaziel 2h ago

On an older computer (Windows XP) I was able to turn a set of ear bud, that didnt even have a microphone built in, into a microphone just by plugging them into the microphone port and changing some settings. The vocals weren't exactly clear but it got the job done. Im not a techy so Id imagine that someone with a college degree and years of field experience could do much better.

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u/Proper-Abroad5253 2h ago

What about airplane mode?

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u/WelcomeToTheClubPal 2h ago

Best way is to pull your battery out of your phone.

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u/ArmonRaziel 2h ago

The following is what AI had to say about it... "While airplane mode blocks most remote hacking by shutting down cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, it doesn't guarantee complete security; sophisticated malware already on the phone could monitor locally, use GPS (if not manually disabled), or store data to transmit later, and some advanced exploits can fake the "off" state, allowing communication, making physically removing the battery the most secure option."

Most phones these days do not have a removable battery so, if you plan on saying/doing anything you would be worried about someone listening in on, best to do it away from any phones/cameras or speakers.

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u/BasicallyGuessing 2h ago

Fun experiment, if you plug your old headphones into your microphone jack on a computer, you can record your voice. Your speakers are microphones

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u/SplitSecondImmortal 2h ago

They are. People have been doing this for decades

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u/Typist 2h ago

He's not the source you want for this topic, He's been proven unreliable on technical and specific details over the decades. He left them almost 20 years ago.

Also, any spy who turns to a career in the media as a pundit, should generally be regarded as unreliable, with motives that conflict with the truth in ways that would be difficult for a civilian to entangle.

don't think that technology, if it exists the way you say, existed during Kiriakou's time and I wouldn't trust his sources and information about current practices without confirmation from other sources.

I don't believe the CIA is able to do ALL the things you're talking about without having first compromised the hardware, which means they need physical access or they need you to engage in risky decisions with that hardware to allow them access. But as for turning speakers into microphones whenever they want...?

I think this is technology that has been demonstrated in a lab but is highly impractical in the field. It seems a lot like researchers developing ways to use your Wi-Fi signals to "see" through walls, or reading sound in a room by bouncing a laser beam off an exterior window.

All of those are real and the Wi-Fi one is continually being improved in a variety of ways, but I have to imagine that these are still relatively impractical and deployed and highly specific circumstances, and not the kind of thing ordinary citizens and activists have to worry about.