In other hardware wallets does the actual hardware actually prevent the export of private keys or seed phrase, or is this something that could be possible with a firmware change in all of them?

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If it's firmware, then all hardware wallets have this ability, so Ledgers claim that their new feature is not a big deal is correct, no?

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Its still disabled by default in the firmware. Just like it is in other wallets. And it could be enabled in firmware just like it could be in other wallets.

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Ledger is closed source, which is one reason why I prefer the other HWwallets, but that has always been known and Ledger did not hide that.