content: That seems very likely to be the case as you can clearly see the author Andy Greenberg associating reasonable concern with paranoia. Also, the user you're responding to seems to have completely missed the technical point of the article that it's not only the input that can do this, but he output jack as well for no good reason. Why would an output jack be able to do this? Seems very spookish, built-in spy feature if you will.    "Cautious computer users put a piece of tape over their webcam. Truly paranoid ones worry about their devices’ microphones"   "Now one group of Israeli researchers has taken that game of spy-versus-spy paranoia a step further..."   Until then, paranoiacs take note: If determined hackers are out to bug your conversations, all your careful microphone removal surgery isn’t quite enough—you’ll also need to unplug that pair of cheap earbuds hanging around your neck.    This author Andy Greenberg seems like a pure psy-ops agent for the spy industry. "Paranoiacs?" Can he sound any more shillish, what a hack.  Look how many people believe tech security equates to paranoia these days, mostly because that's what these media people tell them thats how they should associate it. Any informed reasonable person knows that association is a pure fallacy.