Between Facebook sharing your vacation photos and friends list to the world, and Google tracking every search you've ever made, most of us have pretty much given up on the idea of privacy on the Internet. What is easy to forget is that real-world privacy is no better.
No matter how paranoid or how careful you are, if somebody wants to find you, and listen to what you're saying, they will. After all, we're living in a world where there exist things like...
6
Robo-Roaches (No, Really)
![6 New Spy Technologies You Literally Can't Hide From]()
Can Spy On:
Anybody with the brains to search for electronic bugs, but not bright enough to bring a flyswatter to squish actual bugs.
![6 New Spy Technologies You Literally Can't Hide From]()
How could you hurt something this cute?
How It Does It:
Humanity is united in our disgust and contempt for bugs. They're vile little bastards. Unless of course you work for the government's uber-nerd collective, DARPA, and they're suddenly your best friends, because they make great robots. Why?
One, bugs breed a lot, as anybody who's had them as houseguests can tell you. Two, they have simple nervous systems and aren't cuddly, so nobody cares if you rip out their brains and replace them with microchips just to see what happens, which is exactly what DARPA researchers did.
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Thanks for all the laughs, DARPA.
It turns out that installing a microchip into the brain of an insect is not only easy, it gives you full control over its ability to do things that are great for surveillance, like fly and cling to walls. Attach a camera or a microphone to the bug and suddenly you've got a small, unobtrusive, highly mobile listening device that eats shoe polish and is cheap to replace if it gets crushed.