Used to be if spies wanted to eavesdrop, they planted a bug. These days, it's much easier. Because we all carry potential bugs in our pockets—__1___. One team of researchers used an iPhone to track typing on a nearby computer keyboard with up to 80 percent __2___. They presented the findings at a computer security conference in Chicago.

The researchers designed a malicious app for the iPhone 4. When you place the phone near a keyboard, it exploits accelerometer and gyroscope data to sense vibrations as the victim types—detecting whether keystrokes come from the left or right side of the keyboard, and how near or far __3___ keys are from each other. Then, using that seismic fingerprint, the app checks a pre-created "vibrational" dictionary for the most likely words—a technique that works __4___ on words of three letters or more.

Of course, you'd need to install the app to allow it to spy. But whereas most apps have to ask __5___ to access location data or the camera, that's not so for the accelerometer. This kind of attack may offer good reason to limit accelerometer access too—and keep iPhones from becoming "spiPhones."

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