Comment by throwaway81523
2 years ago
Philip Zimmermann a while back was working on a secure phone product called the Black Phone. I tried to convince him that a secure phone should not contain any microphones of any kind. That sounds a bit weird for a phone, but it's ok, if you want to make a voice call, just plug a headset into it for the duration of the call. He wasn't convinced, but this iphone exploit makes me believe it more than ever.
Perhaps a physical switch that connects or disconnects the electrical signal from the microphone to the handset could be a more convenient approach.
There is a photo of Mark Zuckerberg with a cut off 3.5mm jack plugged into his laptop - likely to achieve a similar outcome.
My phone has a hardware kill switch for mic/camera.