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 counterterrorism 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.

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.

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.’

Read More: Former CIA officer John Kiriakou says your smart TV is spying on you even when it is turned off