Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou Says Your Smart TV Is Spying on You Even When It Is Turned Off

Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer John Kiriakou has warned that intelligence agencies can turn smart TVs into listening devices even when they appear to be switched off, a claim backed by classified documents leaked to WikiLeaks nearly a decade ago.

A post explaining the CIA's surveillance capabilities went viral on X on 21 May after the account @LeadingReport shared footage of the former counter-terrorism chief confirming that the agency 'can access your phone and laptop microphones and cameras.' The post quickly gained traction, but most users sharing it appeared unaware of the broader context behind his claims.

What the Vault 7 Documents Revealed

Kiriakou's warnings trace directly to the 'Vault 7' leak, a trove of more than 8,000 classified CIA files that WikiLeaks began publishing on 7 March 2017. The documents, which dated from 2013 to 2016, detailed the agency's cyber warfare toolkit and exposed a programme codenamed 'Weeping Angel.'

Developed jointly by the CIA and Britain's MI5, Weeping Angel was designed to target Samsung F Series smart TVs. The tool placed targeted sets into a 'Fake-Off' mode, making them appear powered down while the built-in microphone continued to record conversations and transmit audio to a covert CIA server.

The Vault 7 files also exposed CIA tools for hacking Apple and Android smartphones, exploiting security holes in major web browsers, and breaking into Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems.

'They Can Take Control of Your Car'

Kiriakou, who served as Chief of Counterterrorist Operations in Pakistan, first detailed these claims during an appearance on Steven Bartlett's 'The Diary of a CEO' podcast in January 2026.

'They can take control of your smart television and turn the speaker into a microphone so that they can listen to what's being said in the room even when the TV is turned off,' he said. 'It can still hear everything that's being said in the room and broadcast it back to the CIA.'

He also warned that the agency could remotely seize control of a car's computer system 'in order to kill you,' describing potential scenarios of forced crashes made to look like accidents. The Vault 7 documents confirmed the CIA had been exploring ways to infect vehicle control systems as of October 2014, though no specific operational use was disclosed.

Kiriakou added that these surveillance capabilities were not new. 'When I first got hired they were able to do that, that's old technology,' he said, referring to his recruitment in the late 1980s.

Not Just the CIA

The former officer stressed that the threat extends well beyond American intelligence. 'It's not just the NSA, CIA, FBI that you have to worry about,' he told Bartlett. 'It's the British, the French, the Germans, the Canadians, the Australians, the New Zealanders, the Russians, the Chinese, the Israelis, the Iranians. Everybody has these capabilities.'

A Whistleblower's Credibility

Kiriakou is not a fringe commentator. He worked at the CIA from 1990 to 2004 and became the first agency officer to publicly confirm the use of waterboarding during a 2007 ABC News interview. He was later charged under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and served 23 months in federal prison, making him the only CIA officer to be jailed in connection with the agency's torture programme.

The Vault 7 documents themselves led to the conviction of former CIA software engineer Joshua Schulte, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison in February 2024 for leaking the files to WikiLeaks.

For ordinary users, Kiriakou's message is blunt. The technology to spy through everyday devices already exists. The only question, he suggests, is whether you are interesting enough to be targeted.