17 Dec
2003
17 Dec
'03
11:17 p.m.
Phil Karn writes:
Cellular is protected under ECPA because it's big bucks for some powerful US businesses. Cordless phones don't use a large domestic infrastructure that charges for airtime.
Without disputing anything Phil says here, I have it on good authority that the exemption of cordless phones from ECPA had to do with the fact that early models of cordless phones often generated signals that could be picked up by normal radios. The concern was that the owners of normal radios (as distinct from scanners) might be turned into felons for overhearing a cordless-phone conversation. --Mike