Snowden Reveals How the Government Can Easily Hack Your Phone

In a recent interview with the BBC, Edward Snowden had the opportunity to explain just how vulnerable your smartphone really is. Apparently the GCHQ, which is essentially Britain’s version of the NSA, is capable of hacking smartphones with a simple text message.

“It’s called an ‘exploit’…that’s a specially crafted message that’s texted to your number like any other text message, but when it arrives at your phone it’s hidden from you. It doesn’t display. You paid for [the phone] but whoever controls the software owns the phone.” This exploit gives the agency several invasive controls over your phone, none of which you’d ever be able to detect or avoid. They can turn the phone on or off, turn the mic on without the phone being on, track your location in real-time, and they can even take your photograph. And all of this is in addition to their ability to record your contacts, conversations, texts, and web activity.

Snowden admitted in the interview that he wants to come back home, and has been negotiating with the United States to receive a fair trial. “So far they’ve said they won’t torture me. Which is a start, I think. But we haven’t gotten further than that.”