Re: Newt's phone calls

[jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>]

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