In 2014 US whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the National Security Agency and GCHQ could turn on smartphones remotely, even when they were switched off. Now, three years later, several smartphone manufacturers have started introducing non-removable batteries. Is it a coincidence? In June 2013, Snowden revealed the NSA was collecting the phone records of millions of Verizon customers in the US using a secret court order, and had also tapped the phones of dozens of world leaders, including Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel. Snowden was threatened with prosecution in the US, and fled to Russia, where he was granted asylum two years later. The following year he gave an interview in which he explained how the NSA, and Britain's GCHQ, had the capability to use smartphones like bugs in a room. They were able to switch on people's phones and listen to them remotely without them being aware, he said. "They can absolutely turn them on with the power turned off to the device," Snowden said.