[z3n]

I knew people who thought cable TV boxes did that. Seemed fringy to me, but at least the tech made sense. Before cable, you'd have needed a transmitter in televisions, because without them, they were just passive radio receivers. I'm really not sure how big-brother would have been able to spy on millions of TV transmitters if that were the case, but then again, maybe it's just something they'd have wanted to do only if they needed to by getting within range. Still, it seems unfathomable that such technology could have existed in so many appliances without being exposed by ordinary TV repairmen.

[cgbg]

The “old fashioned” Deep State technology just had “spooks” place bugs into the homes of targets.

It was trivial to pretend they were repair or maintenance services or utility service workers.

Break-ins were just a last resort.

This work was probably “contracted out” to “security companies” to assist compartmentalization.

[scrabblehack]

By the ‘00s, they knew what you were watching though.