perhaps newly relevant

For the next 15 months or so, it might be wise to ditch the cell phone.

Democrats running for office (especially campaign strategists and support staff)- you're wired, they're probably listening.

oh- and also...

"A 2003 lawsuit revealed that the FBI was able to surreptitiously turn on the built-in microphones in automotive systems like General Motors' OnStar to snoop on passengers' conversations. When FBI agents remotely activated the system and were listening in, passengers in the vehicle could not tell that their conversations were being monitored."

Thanks to the Blue Dogs and a few Democrats in the Senate, there is now a shiny, brand new, just-vague-enough legal framework for Gonzales to play with.

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". . . the FBI has the ability from a remote location to activate a cell phone and turn its microphone into a listening device that transmits to an FBI listening post, a method known as a 'roving bug.' Experts say the only way to defeat it is to remove the cell phone battery.

'The FBI can access cell phones and modify them remotely without ever having to physically handle them,' James Atkinson, a counterintelligence security consultant, told ABC News. 'Any recently manufactured cell phone has a built-in tracking device, which can allow eavesdroppers to pinpoint someone's location to within just a few feet,' he added."

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source: abcnews.com - Dec 2006
source: zdnet.com - Dec 2006
"roving bug" - hilarious!

- glassfrequency

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New Law Gives Government Six Months to Turn Internet and Phone Systems into Permanent Spying Architecture
By Ryan Singel | 6 August 2007 | Wired Blogs: Threat Level

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interesting...