"Our mobile phones have become the greatest spy on the planet" - quote of the day by antivirus pioneer John McAfee

Date:
Sun, 14 Jun 2026 22:00:00 +0000

Description:
The late cybersecurity entrepreneur often spoke on the aggressive
encroachment of people's digital rights in the modern age

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Where do we start with John McAfee? You may more commonly associate the name with the cybersecurity product ; the late entrepreneur did indeed found McAfee Associates Inc before disassociating himself in 1994 only six years later. In his latter years, McAfee advocated for privacy and railed against tech's aggressive
encroachment on human rights. "Our mobile phones have become the greatest spy on the planet." John McAfee, August 2014 The spy in your pocket Making a surprise speech at DEF CON 22 in Las Vegas, in 2014, McAfee focused on privacy, the dangers of smartphone apps, and the implications on increased surveillance for the future. Although McAfee had a set of unique experiences on the subject, having experienced frequent cyberattacks and, of course, his involvement in crime and controversy, his words spoke to the ongoing encroachment on civil liberties by big tech and governments. Latest Videos From Watch full video here: Quote of the day This article is part of
TechRadar Pro's QOTD project to provide an insight into the minds of the brightest and most recognized figures in the technology industry today and in years gone by. Read the full series here . The comments were made shortly after the Edward Snowden disclosures that started the year before. They were also made in the context of massively increased data harvesting by social media companies and hardware manufacturers intent on using customer data to make money.

Before he died in June 2021, McAfee even launched his own phone. The Privacy Phone , announced in April 2018, was an Android handset that included hardware-layer security. You may like Mobile security is quietly weakening as users abandon paid antivirus tools Quote of the day by Oracle co-founder
Larry Ellison: "Citizens will be on their best behavior, because were constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on" a dire warning on the erosion of privacy Proton CEO warns global age verification push will mean "the death of anonymity online" Tick to consent There's much
to say about how attitudes to privacy have shifted in the last decade with more people seemingly comfortable with the further encroachment on civil liberties and privacy by tech giants. This is despite major attempts to safeguard user privacy, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

You can see, for example, the way that cookie walls have become commonplace, which most users of digital goods and services tick away as soon as they're able to. There's also a new dimension to user privacy courtesy of the rise of AI and the way it has scraped so much training data from the web. Smart glasses, too, pose challenges . Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news
and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

As these systems become more embedded in many aspects of our lives, there's a greater need for systems to protect user privacy, according to research .



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