10 Things We Learned From Edward Snowden On Joe Rogan's Podcast

7. How Your Phone Functions When It's "Off"

During a prior interview with Brian Williams, Snowden had half-joked that the NSA could probably turn his phone on remotely if they wanted, and collect data from it without him even knowing. If the audience laughed at that, they shouldn't have. Edward, despite playing up to the gallery for his appearance slightly, wasn't really kidding around.

He told Rogan that modern smartphones function in a ludicrous way.

Unless the battery has been removed from the device, it's never truly "off". That means that the phone is still functioning even when powered down; there's a small discrepancy here. Obviously, the device can't communicate without any juice, so battery power is key. If the phone still has some of that, it's open for connection with other devices.

This is modern-day wiretapping. Instead of planting microphones or cameras manually in the homes of suspects, the government can now rely on a global addiction to smartphones to do the work for them.