Although multiple backdoors and exploits put there on purpose exist in them (systemd being prime example) the main way spooks get into modern devices is through CPU level exploits.

On all modern CPUs there is an entire OS running in Ring -1 beyond your reach. On Intel CPUs it's called the Management Engine. AMD CPUs have the same thing but it's called PSP. Cell phones are required to ship with what is called the "baseband" chip that has full access to all hardware and can't be modified or inspected by the end user (at least not easily). ARM has a similar backdoor. So does RISC-V shit and most everything else you can think of.

Older CPUs won't help you either because there are multiple undocumented bugs and optcodes. But they weren't designed with obvious backdoors from the factory. At least not until the mid-1990s. Then there is the issue of the rest of the hardware we all use having firmware we can inspect/modify. HDDs and SSDs suffer from this but also GPUs and most everything else in a modern device.

There is also things to worry about like speakers. A lot of people yank out microphones (or cover them) to prevent eavesdropping. But a speaker is the same thing and can be used just as easily for the same purpose. Most people don't think about that. You should assume any device with a camera, speakers, and microphone is both listening to you and watching you at all times.


I'll give you a good example of how they spy on end users without them being any wiser. Have you noticed that no ISP installs a modem anymore? They all give you a modem/router combo of some sort. This is so you have a wireless AP into their network. Just about every person subscribed to an ISP has a wireless AP that the ISP can remotely control. Many even charge customers $5+ a month to use these APs.

Well think about how wifi works. It's a radio transmitting 24/7. It pulses. If you capture it and play it back as audio it sounds just like the old Russian woodpecker. For good reason it's the same type of technology just being used in a different part of the radio spectrum. Your ISP has free access to listen and record everything within range of it. It's a radar system.

By using the AP in your home they can map the inside of your home and monitor everything and everyone within it in real time. Or they can grep through their logs of it later and learn everyone's habits within the home. Imagine having one of these in every home within a major city or an entire country.

People will call you crazy if you point this out and say they'd never do something like monitor it. But it isn't true. The most valuable thing on this planet is data and "metadata". People pay big money for access to data like that. It's the entire reason the advertising (propaganda) and intelligence communities exist. It's what they do.

Let's assume you could build a PC that isn't backdoor'd. What do you think will happen the moment you attempt to access the internet with it? It'll be an oddity. It'll raise a red flag with their mass data collection technology (the main reason why "AI" was developed was to grep through this type of data). You are now interesting. You're on their radar. If they notice they don't have an existing backdoor into that system they'll try to place one. Or passively monitor what's happening on said system through various methods.
On and on it goes. There are hundreds of ways into any modern device at the hardware level alone. When you get into software things become much much worse. Don't listen to idiots that say things like

>you're schizo
>you're not important enough for them to monitor

They monitor everyone and everything. They store most of it forever too (why do you think they've built and are building so many datacenters?)

It's shit like this that i don't like.

What's stopping them from just capturing your "data" through a wire? in fact it would be much easier/faster for them to do that?

So either way, you are fucked if you want a connection to the internet and your only line of defense right now is encryption but idk for how long.