# CIA Smart TV Surveillance

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "CIA Smart TV Surveillance," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-smart-tv-surveillance/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*Per John Kiriakou, a CIA technical capability — disclosed publicly by the 2017 Vault 7 leaks — to convert a smart television's speaker system into a covert listening microphone even while the television appears to be switched off.*

According to [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou), the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) can repurpose a smart television's speaker system as a covert microphone, enabling audio surveillance even when the TV is turned off.[1] He has described the same capability elsewhere in stronger terms: the CIA can convert smart TVs and speakers into microphones to listen to conversations without a warrant, using technology he estimates is roughly 20 years ahead of general public understanding.[2]

Kiriakou frames this and comparable disclosures as only a small sample of what is actually known, drawn from leaks and whistleblowers rather than any systematic accounting: *"it's incalculable how much is out there that we don't know."*[3]

## The clip's second life

By December 2025 the capability was circulating again as a viral clip, and Kiriakou was being asked whether it was real. His answer was flat — *"Oh, no. They very much can do that"* — followed by the observation that the material was not new: *"it's funny to me that this clip that you're talking about has taken on a second life, because that information was released in 2017 by Josh Schulte."*[4]

He traces the chain of publication explicitly — [Joshua Schulte](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/joshua-schulte) sent it to WikiLeaks and WikiLeaks released it, as part of [Vault 7](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/vault-7) — and restates the mechanism: *"the CIA can turn on your smart TV without it looking like it's on. They can turn the speaker into a microphone and they can listen to everything that goes on in that room. All the while you are thinking that the TV is off."*[5]

## See also

- [Vault 7](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/vault-7)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)

## Sources

1. War & Military · Exposing Crimes is Not a Crime  · John Kiriakou, Jesselyn Radack... · (2026-03-20), at 24:14. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8HH4U7_tKo&t=1454s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-20-disruption-network-lab-war-military-exposing-crimes-is-not-a-crime-jo/
2. Trump FIRES Bondi, CIA's "MK Ultra" History, and "Two Weeks" Spin, with Kiriakou, Davis and Ahmari (2026-04-02), at 01:19:32. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pZp0HSDaa0&t=4772s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-04-02-megyn-kelly-trump-fires-bondi-cia-s-mk-ultra-history-and-two-weeks-sp/
3. Spelunking the Deep State with John Kiriakou (2023-01-11), at 41:58. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is0yrElNSFA&t=2518s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-01-11-real-progressives/
4. "Epstein Was an Access Agent for Mossad" (2025-12-15), at 06:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyt8t7fVjlE&t=375s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-15-epstein-was-an-access-agent-for-mossad/
5. "Epstein Was an Access Agent for Mossad" (2025-12-15), at 06:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyt8t7fVjlE&t=406s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-15-epstein-was-an-access-agent-for-mossad/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-smart-tv-surveillance/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt