Re: "privatizing" phones?

[Cerridwyn Llewyellyn <ceridwyn@wolfenet.com>]

>While shopping for a new phone recently, I came across
>two models (Toshiba and Uniden I believe) that
>have buttons to "privatize" you conversations. These
>were on no-cord models. Does anyone have any idea
>on what these actually do? Can the phones  change
> the frequency the call is on randomly
>so people can't tune into it? I know cellulars offer something
>similar. Personally, I would never put much faith into
>something of this sort. 

Even if they did change the frequency the call was on, 
it would be a simple matter to decode how the frequency
change was negotiated, and "follow" the call (also easily
accomplished with cellular calls).  Failing that, there is 
a very limited range of frequencies allocated for cordless 
fones, and simply re-scanning for the conversation is a 
trivial inconvenience. //cerridwyn//