Maybe this. Most smartphones have a modem inside, this modem has a separate closed-sourced operating system and it usually has the main priority in controlling the smartphone relative to the processor running the main operating system, such as Android. Sometimes the modem has access to the microphone or memory, even bypassing the CPU. Although maybe everyone already knows that.
I’ve wondered for a while if something like this is why Google allowed their bootloaders to be unlocked, because they can get at everything anyways.
And I bet that if that was the case, they’ve backed off that for future phones because of those stories about law enforcement seeing having those phones as suspicious, which could hurt sales, since I bet the majority of pixel users don’t switch operating systems.
Maybe this. Most smartphones have a modem inside, this modem has a separate closed-sourced operating system and it usually has the main priority in controlling the smartphone relative to the processor running the main operating system, such as Android. Sometimes the modem has access to the microphone or memory, even bypassing the CPU. Although maybe everyone already knows that.
I’ve wondered for a while if something like this is why Google allowed their bootloaders to be unlocked, because they can get at everything anyways.
And I bet that if that was the case, they’ve backed off that for future phones because of those stories about law enforcement seeing having those phones as suspicious, which could hurt sales, since I bet the majority of pixel users don’t switch operating systems.
Wouldn’t that lead to a “Clipper Chip” situation where somone figured out how to isolate the issue? I think the Graphene team already did it.
Snowden gave us this info, right?