At 12:02 PM 1/14/97 -0800, Bill Stewart wrote:
I just caught the news reports of Newt Gingrich's cell phone calls being taped by "a little old retired couple" with a scanner. These were then given to a congressman, who gave them to a newspaper.
Eavesdropping on cellphones is illegal, since there's an expectation of privacy.
I disagree. Not that cellphone eavesdropping is illegal, it is; I disagree that the REASON it is illegal is some sort of expectation of privacy. And I also disagree that there is any expectation of privacy. If anything, the opposite should be true: Unless a person was (falsely) under the impression that the radio signals were encrypted (which, in itself, requires that a person be technologically-literate enough to be aware of the technical possibility that radio CAN BE encrypted, but also implies knowing that they might not be...) then the very fact that the signals go by radio would imply the possibility of reception by others with reasonably simple radios. Jim Bell jimbell@pacifier.com