> If you root-hack a phone you can easily get all messages the user sees after you hacked it. This is not even necessary if you're in bed with hardware manufac

> If you root-hack a phone you can easily get all messages the user sees after you hacked it. This is not even necessary if you're in bed with hardware manufacturers, which could be the case with governments. All is needed is a system level daemon running in background, disguised as service or device driver pushed as mandatory upgrade, having access to the underlying iron. The user employs super strong cryptography? Who cares if we can read what is sent to the screen and tunnel it over the network to us. Passwords? Who cares if we can sniff the touch screen data to get the tapped points coordinates containing the position of keys on the virtual keyboard. Point is that there is zero protection against surveillance if the adversary has control over the hardware. Which is the reason why flashing an FOSS operating system on a closed hardware/firmware platform, although being indeed a good thing, isn't enough to claim victory.