There is a lot of talk in the news since Snowden about hackers and spies turning people's microphones into room bugs, listening to all room noise 24 hours a day even when you are not in a phone call.

I think this problem will cause a lot of anxiety for phone users users, and is undermining trust in computers, phones and the Internet itself.

People do not want to be frightened to talk to one another, and even intimacy and sex and business secrets all being picked up by microphones.

All of this could potentially add up to lower product sales for phone companies, like Apple, Samsung etc. Spying is a threat to your business model.

People are currently going to extreme lengths like using screwdrivers and physically taking apart their microphones and using an external mic instead.

This is very inconvenient, especially when you get stuck screws. Not to mention, you can accidentally drop and lose your external Bluetooth mic, and it's something that costs money, and the audio volume and quality doesn't tend to be very good. It is also an extra device to charge up, and it's inconvenient to have to switch it on every time you want to make a call, especially if someone calls you and you have to scramble to switch it on. Meanwhile, using a microphone with a cable tends to cause wear and tear on the cable. You know how easy it is for your headphones to wear and tear. So you have to keep replacing it. Not to mention, it gets tangled in your pocket, and is inconvenient to untangle.

A much better solution would be for phones to include hardware physical switches for the microphone, webcam, and even 3G/WiFi/networking.

When the switch is "on", the microphone is physically able to work. When the switch is "off", the microphone physically cannot work. Software switches are not good enough. The microphone needs to be disabled in the physical world.

The company Purism makes its laptops with physical switches. You can see that here: https://puri.sm/

I think Apple, Samsung etc need to include mic switches on their phones, tablets, and computers.

Consumers should not have to go to extreme lengths to secure their microphones, and should not have to start very inconvenient or embarrassing conversations with friends and family, trying to convince them to remove their microphones as well.

We are calling on all phone companies to include microphone switches on their devices, to protect users against malicious hackers and abusive spies.