Is Samsung embedding spy chips in your phone? Probably not.

We’ve all heard it at least once, the government just loves to spy on people by putting additional chips in your phone to monitor your every move. Every little thing out of place could be home to that very chip that they’re tracking all your calls with, waiting for the right bit of juicy information to use as an excuse to whisk you off, never to be seen again.

Smartphones are pretty complicated as they are, and if you open yours you are likely to find a lot of things you don’t understand within. In particular, Samsung batteries have attracted attention recently for “hiding” spy chips within, leading people to actually peel them open to remove the little coil inside.

The truth is that’s just an NFC (Near Field Communication) antenna. People outside the tech bubble probably don’t even know what NFC is, and videos circulating about people removing the receiver has sparked a fair bit of paranoia. As the claim goes, the chip is supposedly communicating wirelessly with other sources and is leaking your data and photos without your knowledge. While the wireless communication bit is true (that’s what NFC is designed to do) but trust us, the government probably doesn’t want to see what you’ve been doing on Facebook all day. Plus you’ll need another device to physically touch the NFC panel in order for information to be exchanged.

The myth was likely originally perpetuated by this guy; who has been repeatedly copied by many people, including a Malaysian who recently claimed that Samsung was spying on him with the said mysterious chip. Most Samsung smart phones from the Galaxy S III has an NFC antenna embedded with the battery. This would then allows you to beam files with another NFC enabled device directly from the back of the smart phone. If you’re not convinced yet, this Samsung battery spying myth has been debunked by Snopes.

At any rate, it is extremely ill advised to attempt opening up anything on your phone, especially the battery. Please don’t try this for yourself and leave your tinfoil hats at home.

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