10 years ago OP would've been labeled a schizo, now we just accept there's microphones in everything
this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2026
929 points (98.8% liked)
Privacy
50935 readers
1042 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
i hate living in a cyberpunk dystopia
It looks way cooler in the movies and video games. We were tricked!
Because in the movies and video games we see the main character. For the NPCs it sucks... and that's us.
load more comments
(2 replies)
The least they could do is give us the damn body augmentations already. We got all the shitty parts and none of the cool tech.
load more comments
(3 replies)
It'll only get worse don't worry. The next TVs will brick if you physically remove the microphone or wifi.
You know the irony of this is? My ex-fiances father was labeled as schizophrenic. I mean he was by textbook definition. One day, I would take her to visit him, he says that computers are tracking you. Now, I brushed it off at the time, probably a conspiracy theory right? but I did think about it.
L3 was tracking internet data already, at least, in the early 2000's. A little game of what's connecting to my computer showed me that, but I didn't know what it was at the time. Well now I know, g-sec company has been tracking us from routers for over twenty years; same company after the merger that makes EOTECHs. So the puzzle pieces came together.
I kind of wondered if he really was schizophrenic or medicated to be so? As an a example, tramadol made me have auditory hallucinations that I've never experience on acid or mushrooms (college lol).
If this guy is still alive, I bet he'd really appreciate you telling him he was right. It can be exhausting trying to get people to see the issues in society and having everyone just constantly write you off as crazy. Since you're here posting this instead of reddit, you've probably had that experience yourself since then.
load more comments
(6 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
I will still argue phones listen to us. Don't care what you say, it happens. Act accordingly
load more comments
(3 replies)
PRISM leak was 13 years ago if you want to feel old yet, but then that was just a revelation about how prevelant mass surveillance is, it was Vault 7 in 2017 that detailed how built-in microphones in Smart TVs are used for spying, so that part would indeed be less than 10 years ago
load more comments
(1 replies)
This should be a web site or YT channel. How to remove such bits without bricking the item.
To be fair, OP didn’t claim that the remote wasn’t bricked…
It works! I was fully prepared for it to not work and explain to my wife why we need to order a new one, but no issue at all lmao
load more comments
(16 replies)
Looking up which part to nuke took an hour, but anything to calm down my paranoid ass haha
Not paranoid, sane and careful for today's world.
"Oh good, he fell for the decoy"
oh no
load more comments
(2 replies)
FYI: Any speaker can and will be used as a microphone.
We're really fucked aren't we.
So just remove my sim card and unplug my firewall? Got it.
You would be surprised about the capabilities we had in 1970-80s for spying, with way way less technology than what we have today. At this point I think privacy is just a myth, we can literally use light to listen on people by having it bounce off of their windows and interpreting it back as sound. As a side note, rich people do use windows with a vibrating feature exactly to block this old method. There's literally very little you can do if you are targeted by the government. (Except leaving the country, if possible)
Privacy is not a myth, you just practice compartmentalization.
At this point I think privacy is just a myth.
This is the cop in your head to kill. State surveillance capabilities are limited. While in theory it's difficult to block targetted surveillance the key is to avoid being targetted by blending in.
James Micken's model of mosad and not mossad threats apply. If a state turns its gaze on you, you will lose. However passive dragnet methods to try and decide who to turn the eye of Sauron on can be hidden from.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(32 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(12 replies)
FYI most modern TVs have a second microphone actually in the display that’s actually used for the nefarious tracking and listening for assistant wake words to save remote battery life
load more comments
(1 replies)
While you're at it, disconnect your "smart TV" from the internet!
This is the far easier approach, but if you live somewhere densely populated (like an apartment building) keep in mind it’s been rumored that smart TVs can make a mesh network to upload data without a connection. Though to my knowledge this has never been definitively shown to be true
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
Remember ye old life-hack that you can use earbuds as a microphone in a pinch?
Speakers and microphones are conceptually the same technology. If your tv can play sound then in theory it can be used by a malicious hacker or company to record sound.
Only the cone-magnet-coil-wires part is the same. All the electrical parts are different. There's no way.
load more comments
(12 replies)
load more comments
(8 replies)
Things will become more obscure and harder to disable. In fact since you own nothing and you'll be happy, youre damaging government property and the police are already dispatched to take you to a totally cool and totally legal prison slave camp.
load more comments
(9 replies)
If you want to know ~~all~~ some of the ways your audio can be spied on.
Benn Jordan on audio spying: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEC6PM97IRI
He, surprisingly, did another: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5ynZ3lMQJc
I'm tempted to try this but I'm not sure how to identify the microphone or whether it would be in my remote or the TV itself. Is there some sort of guide on doing this?
load more comments
(2 replies)
view more: next ›