speakers can record. A speaker and a microphone are physically similar to each other although in modern production each are heavily designed for one or the other function, not both. But if you send an electrical signal to the magnet in a speaker, it vibrates the cone. If you vibrate a cone or surface in a microphone, it turns that into an electrical signal.
But that’s moot, because phones have microphones anyway.
And it’s stupid that an android can activate it’s own mic. Last time I had one, you had to press the Okay Google icon to start. If this claim is true, then the article fails to explain the full gravity of the situation. The mic is always hot and always listening for “Okay Google”, which means it’s never turned off. What happens to that signal is another story.
> it’s stupid that an android can activate it’s own mic. Last time I had one, you had to press the Okay Google icon to start.
If you get a better Android phone, there’s an option to have it listen all the time. Kind of useful when driving.
> The mic is always hot and always listening for “Okay Google”
Anything with a microphone, a processor and a network connection (from a $10 prepaid phone on up) can listen to you and report on you, if so programmed.
The key is not necessarily to stop this ability, because that would cripple us. It’s to stop the people who want to abuse it. Any way necessary.