My wife's curiosity was piqued by a recent episode of Monk where the bad guys were caught because they were overheard discussing the crime by a quality control person while on hold on a call to make airline reservations. Does this actually happen? Are there quality control people that listen in on entire phone calls even when you are on-hold? I know that they warn you that the call may be recorded for quality control but for some reason I only ever took that to mean that it was the part where you were actually talking. I would assume that even if they do this it is a very low percentage of the calls due to the cost.
posted by GrumpyMonkey on Apr 14, 2008 - 14 answers

Is it possible to listen in on a GSM cell phone conversation? Don't worry, I'm not planning anything illegal. I'm just wondering if a certain service provider's denials are on the level. [more inside]
posted by micketymoc on Aug 24, 2007 - 9 answers

I used to have one of those old VCRs where you had to tune each channel in by hand. It had a set of tiny little dials that let you scan the entire TV spectrum (and beyond?). When the cable wire was plugged in, I could tune in some bizzare things in the audio: rhythmic clicking, low pulses, and most interestingly, other people's phone calls. I assume I was picking up cordless phones, but how did this work? Did the cable system act as a giant antenna all over town? Has this phenomenon ever been documented anywhere?
posted by stopgap on Apr 10, 2006 - 6 answers

Let's say, hypothetically, that you are a victim of a man-in-the-middle attack, perhaps via the handy arp-spoofing feature of the somewhat creepy program known as ettercap. How could you tell? What are the telltale signs?
posted by Astragalus on Jan 4, 2006 - 10 answers

For reasons that don't particularly make sense I believe that someone is spying on me with a camera hidden somewhere in my room. Ignoring for a moment the fact that I'm clearly nuts, what exactly would the law be on this (I live in the US)? [more inside]
posted by Astragalus on Dec 14, 2005 - 49 answers