A joint study by the University of Florida and Japan’s University of Electro-Communications has revealed that MEMS microphones in laptops and smart devices

 

 

A joint study by the University of Florida and Japan’s University of Electro-Communications has revealed that MEMS microphones in laptops and smart devices can leak audio through electromagnetic signals without the need for malware, hacking, or physical tampering. 

 

These signals can be detected by basic FM radio equipment, enabling a new form of wireless eavesdropping. The researchers demonstrated this using standard laptops and speakers, showing that even when microphones are muted or inactive, they can still leak speech through everyday apps like Spotify or Google Drive. 

 

The test setup successfully captured distorted but understandable voice samples through 10-inch concrete walls, and AI tools, such as OpenAI’s speech models, were able to clean and transcribe them with up to 94% accuracy. The researchers caution that billions of consumer devices could be vulnerable to this type of audio leakage.