You mean the good old Western Electric 500 set?
Back in the day, Jedgar & Co. were perfectly capable of turning those into room bugs that worked with the phone on or off the hook. Required a bag job, however, for on-hook listening to work.
Is anyone here is old enough to remember telephone WITHOUT an operating system, without a built-in telebision and tiddle winks games, a telephone that the telephone company handed to you for FREE, yes, FREE without you having to sign any 2 year contract?
Sure. You can still get one with just a dial pad, but it’ll still have the firmware needed to activate the mic if they want. Who knows if those older ones did. The analog ones from the 90s you could pick up on any modded scanner radio just fine. They made that a BIG crime once someone overheard a congress critter doing some shady stuff.
I’m sure once they went digital though they have always had backdoors.
AT&T still rents phones to elderly people who don't read their bill closely enough.
You mean the good old Western Electric 500 set?
Back in the day, Jedgar & Co. were perfectly capable of turning those into room bugs that worked with the phone on or off the hook. Required a bag job, however, for on-hook listening to work.