Feds Using Cell Phone Microphones To Eavesdrop

Good morning paranoia fans. Remember the old days when the feds had to work really hard to convince someone to agree to "wear a wire"? That was then. Nowadays we all cheerfully carry our own microphones with us everywhere. Every cell phone has one. Turns out that the feds can download software to many of them and then have the ability to turn on the microphone and listen in. In some phones they can even do this if you think the phone is off. The only sure way is to take the battery out--which only disables your own microphone. What about that guy over there? Does he still have his battery in the phone?

Mickeleh's Take: So far what we know is this: the FBI did this in a particular case involving the Genovese crime family. It was endorsed in a memorandum opinion by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. But given the Bush doctrine of "warrant schmarrant," don't you expect that anything that can be done, will be done?

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(Tags: law, privacy, cell phone, wiretap, eavesdropping, FBI)