Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with eavesdropping

Hold Please

GrumpyMonkey — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:24:49 -0800

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.

What does it take to listen in on a GSM phone signal?

micketymoc — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 07:10:44 -0800

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. In our country's elections last 2004, an audio snippet of our President talking to an elections officer made its way to the 'Net.

These days, a senator claims he knows how rogue intelligence agents split the signal to listen in; the service provider's spokesman claims that “special equipment is needed for it and we do not have that. Not just anybody can get that because it is highly restricted equipment (and) presumably very expensive. Whoever did the eavesdropping had access to such equipment, but not us.”

Who's right? The senator, or the spokesman? Let's assume someone actually did manage to tap the President's GSM signal - what did that "someone" do? How difficult is it, really?

I can hear you, just barely hear you

stopgap — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 16:36:35 -0800

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?

Am I being man-in-the-middled?

Astragalus — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 17:45:17 -0800

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?

Is it legal to eavesdrop on someone with a hidden camera placed in their home?

Astragalus — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 10:48:29 -0800

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)? I know what a cliche it is, but recent talk of the beloved patriot act has made me realize that I don't even know if it would be illegal for someone to slither a camera into my bedroom and ride the thrill of my oh-so-exciting bedroom existence. What could I do? If they were really sadistic a well placed speaker and night vision would make for some high comedy as my sanity crumbled into pathetic little bits before their eyes.