Radar Can Be Used To Eavesdrop On Smartphone Conversations, Penn State Scientists Show

Study Finds ^ | August 15, 2025 | Suryoday Basak and Mahanth Gowda (Pennsylvania State University)

[Nervous Tick]

>> with off-the-shelf radar

Headed to Harbor Freight right now! :-)

[PeterPrinciple]

AI transcription of these signals reached up to 59.25% word accuracy at 20 inches, 40.82% at ~3 feet with a human subject, and 2–4% at 10 feet.

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I will have to admit, that is better than a lot of human ears.

[9YearLurker]

2-4% at 10 feet. That must have made for some useful transcriptions.

[TexasGator]

“and 2–4% at 10 feet. “

Using only my ears, I am at 100% at 10’ with my wife’s phone conversations.

[Frank Drebin]

The new iPhone 26, now with Radar Lock detection technology™.

"We believe we've developed, simply, the best anti-radar phone ever. When the iPhone 26 detects a radar lock, the iPhone immediately goes into one of thousands of preprogrammed, AI-optimized, evasion patterns and releases flares and chaff."

[jimtorr]

Just the same as using radar and lidar and microwaves to tap into conversations on the other side of a window, from across the street. That’s why secure conference rooms do not have windows.

On the other hand, I’ve worked in many secure office buildings that had standard office windows. None of them, however, had any other buildings close enough to covertly use listening devices.

[wally_bert]

Maybe there will be a radar secret service branch.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_Secret_Service

[catnipman]

“off-the-shelf radar “

i wonder if you can build a homebrew version from components in a microwave oven?

[higgmeister]

What a nothingburger.   LOL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)

The Thing was designed by Soviet Russian inventor Leon Theremin,[7] best known for his invention of the theremin, an electronic musical instrument. In Russian, the device is called Zlatoust (Златоуст) and belongs to a class of devices called endovibrators (эндовибраторы).

It was concealed inside a gift given by the Soviet Union to W. Averell Harriman, the United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union, on August 4, 1945.

Penn State dusting off concepts from 80 years ago...

[Billthedrill]

We were warned.

[higgmeister]

"We believe we've developed, simply, the best anti-radar phone ever. When the iPhone 26 detects a radar lock, the iPhone immediately goes into one of thousands of preprogrammed, AI-optimized, evasion patterns and releases flares and chaff."

C-130 Angel Wing Flare Pattern

[Openurmind]

This is 30 year old tech now. They can just hook to your incoming and outgoing cell, WiFi, and Bluetooth frequencies. Every radio wave out of that phone can be tapped, and remotely from anywhere in the world.

[mikey_hates_everything]

The researchers can just ask the Chinese. The tech at high enough power is what causes the “Havana Syndrome”, which actually began in Guangzhou and Beijing.

[Frank Drebin]

[DugwayDuke]

Instead of holding a radar a few inches from a phone to capture the conversation, why not just listen to the guy talk?

[Opinionated Blowhard]

AI transcription of these signals reached up to 59.25% word accuracy at 20 inches, 40.82% at ~3 feet with a human subject, and 2–4% at 10 feet.

If someone is standing 20 inches or 3 feet from you, you probably shouldn't be talking about sensitive personal information like bank accounts. You probably shouldn't be discussing those things in a public forum anyway.

[dagunk]

“off-the-shelf radar “

i wonder if you can build a homebrew version from components in a microwave oven?

**********************************************

Frequency too low for this purpose.

[bigbob]

Wasn’t aware the inverse square law could be broken

[Openurmind]