Snowden designed an iPhone case: guess what it does. - CNET

Edward Snowden and noted hacker Andrew "Bunnie" Huang plan to present a design for a new personal security device at the MIT Media Lab on Thursday. According to Wired, the device is a case-like gadget that "wires into your iPhone's guts to monitor the electrical signals sent to its inteal antennas."

The goal of Snowden and Huang's new device is to constantly check if someone -- whether it be the govement or a private hacker -- is receiving information from your phone's radios. It does this by snaking wires through the SIM card port (the card itself will be moved to a new slot on the case) and monitoring the iPhone hardware for indicators of unwanted transmissions. While a feature like "airplane mode" does stop your phone from transmitting signals, Snowden says it is far less reliable than monitoring the hardware.

Snowden and Huang have yet to build a prototype, but they are presenting a detailed design on Thursday. How long it will be until users can get their hands on a product remains to be seen.