Z:gnu-www-ja-android-and-users-freedom--02430f-On most Android devices, this/en

On most Android devices, this firmware has so much control that it could turn the product into a listening device. On some, it controls the microphone. On some, it can take full control of the main computer, through shared memory, and can thus override or replace whatever free software you have installed. With some, perhaps all, models it is possible to exercise remote control of this firmware to overwrite the rest of the software in the device. The point of free software is that we have control of our software and our computing; a system with a back door doesn't qualify. While any computing system might have bugs, these devices can be bugs. (Craig Murray, in Murder in Samarkand, relates his involvement in an intelligence operation that remotely converted an unsuspecting target's non-Android portable phone into a listening device.)