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Comment by shii | Hacker News Reader

Actually it isn't. There's been documented evidence if this very thing being carried our in at least 1 large case[1][2][3]. I'm actually sure there's been some exploits in the wild that have even been presented at Blackhat before, but I can't locate the links properly right now; on the iPhone.

[1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_listening_device

[2] http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029-6140191.html

[3] http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/12/remotely_eaves...

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The documented evidence is from a case in 1996. According to the article:

Some handsets can't be fully powered down without removing the battery; for instance, some Nokia models will wake up when turned off if an alarm is set.

I'm not so sure that this is still a common practice for modern phones.

It isn't a modern phone, but I remember my Nokia 2600 (not Classic) doing that.

My couple months old Nokia C7 does this (but I'm more grateful for the convenience than worried about covert tapping devices..)

As far as I'm aware all modern phones will at least partially wake up to sound an alarm even when turned off/

Does the iPhone/Android phones do this?

"Wake up"??

If my Android phone is off, it's off. It doesn't turn itself on, period. If it's just idle, screen off, with lots of stuff asleep, sure it will "wake up" in that the screen turns on, and sound an alarm. But that's it.

That's generally what's meant by "wake up." This would seem to indicate the phone's not really "off," though I couldn't say how possible it is to tap into the mic in this state.

That is not true at all for Android. Ask any Android developer. it is entirely possible to code an alarm callback that will not activate the screen at all, but can use a network to send and recieve data.

This is done commonly by builtin services.

The iPhone alarms do not work when the phone is turned off. If you've muted your phone this also means that all alarms are muted too.

May be useful in business surroundings, but this makes the iPhone an awfully bad travel alarm.

Mute doesn't silence alarms on the iPhone, however the volume control does work. 0% and you won't wake up.

Oops, you're right, they do work when your iPhone is muted.

Blackberries do this.

My really cheap Nokia will do this, even if the battery is dead enough that the phone won't turn on normally.

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