All your data (conversations, text messages etc) goes through the network, and those network operators can easily access it. It's just the same with ISPs though

All your data (conversations, text messages etc) goes through the network, and those network operators can easily access it. It's just the same with ISPs though. I don't know if that's what he meant by 'listening devices'. In any way, a lot of these statements make a lot of sense for many citizens in different parts of the world (China etc), where there's a corrupt government and a suppressed freedom of speech. For an US citizen I suppose they may be exaggerated. But I share many of his views, and he obviously deserves a lot more respect than some people show towards him. EDIT. And of course, if it's running non-free software the cell phone can easily be made to transmit microphone data without the user noticing.