Is it confirmed that these "hackers" can listen through a phone's microphone? It is important to tell users of these linux and android devices that it is very likely that these devices are vulnerable to getting their webcam hacked. On android I know that when you start the pjone the camera icon is shown, but I think that a while ago it was confirmed that it wasn't taking "secret photos" of you (like some malicious individuals like to do with their phones when they go to show you something on their phone but they have an app running in the background.)
I can attest that although I don't know how it is that they could do it, it appears that most likely they are indeed capable of hacking and getting an image from a linux pc webcam. The thing is that I can't tell if it was Full arch linux install or a fresh "minimal" debian install. I was trying different os during those months, but it had to be 1 of those 2 distros.
What is more troubling than that for me is that I have seen what appears them broadcasting or communicating "in plain sight" at least once. This is where my suspicions of corrupt NSA comes from because they are broadcasting information and cooperating with unknown entities around the world.
I know these are all lame speculations, but it seems that "they" have been doing it for some time, as the post I read was date from the earlier 2000s and appearently they were "following" an older african american man and the way they were tracking him accross the internet was not through mother board information because it was mussing from the post. Instead they appeared to be using his pcs usb bus information. I don't know enough about these things to understand how all of this is possible, but unless it's some cruel joke, it seems that they use this usb bus information, probably alongside other things too to try to track people online, then hack their webcams somehow.
That is why I am so concerned about the microphones being hacked on smartphobes because you can open a phone and disconnect the camera easily because it's a ribbon cable with some leads, but a microphone would be soldered on and more of a hassle to remove.