As everyone knows, we’re all being watched. Many of us directly from space. They monitor our every step. They bribe the neighbors, who then spy through the peephole or drill a hole in the wall and stick a microphone through it... And through that same hole they can later insert a special little device that will shoot deadly rays at you. So here’s my question on the subject, for people who actually know. Can someone explain the famous “open padlock” icon that sometimes appears during a call? I have a Nokia N93i. And this “padlock” used to show up from time to time, but for the last few months it’s been there constantly. As far as I remember, during the Dubrovka terrorist attack (the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis), these “open padlocks” were showing up all over Moscow. The explanation was that the operators had disabled call encryption so the FSB (Russia’s security service) could intercept calls more easily and track down the terrorists’ accomplices. Supposedly they even caught someone that way. So what does this symbol actually mean? It can’t be that it’s warning the phone’s owner that the call is being monitored. That would be too simple. And if the data is being intercepted at the carrier level, the phone wouldn’t be able to detect that anyway. Probably. What the hell is the point of the SORM system (Russia’s lawful interception/surveillance system) if any idiot can see this padlock and know: they’re listening to me. If anyone understands these technical gadgets, enlighten me — I’m curious. UPD: knowledgeable people replied on ICQ: Encryption disabled. Roughly speaking, that means your phone can be listened to with any radio receiver that picks up GSM frequencies. Something like that. Put in a different SIM card, or put your SIM into another phone. See what happens. If it’s the same with a different SIM, then it’s the phone. If it’s the other way around, then it means you’re probably being tapped. So now my question is even more relevant. Is wiretapping really done in such a dumb way that the phone can detect it right away? And who can disable the encryption? The mobile carrier?
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