Hard disks can be turned into listening devices
Buried 4/5 down the page: "<i>One limiting aspect of the described technique is that it requires a fairly loud conversation in the vicinity of the eavesdropping hard drive. To record comprehensible speech, the conversation had to reach 85 dBA, with 75 dBA being the low threshold for capturing muffled sound.</i>"<p>For context, a vacuum cleaner is also 75 decibels, with 80db as the threshold for hearing loss:
<a href="https://ehs.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/decibel-level-chart.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://ehs.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/decibel-level...</a><p>So you literally have to scream at each other right in front of the hard drive for it to record discernible speech. This is not an "eavesdropping mic" as the subheading of the article claims. Therefore, it's yet another clickbait BS fearmongering article about an interesting tech hack.