RE: ECPA and eavesdropping on other people's phone calls

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () bsf-llc com>]

The relavent Federal law is something called the Electronic Communications
Privacy Act or ECPA.  Here's the text:

http://floridalawfirm.com/privacy.html

The law is a bit complicated to follow, but my reading is that it is illegal
in most cases to listen to or disclose the contents of wired or wireless
telephone conversations.

Cordless phones are explicitly mentioned in this section:

(ii) if the communication is the radio portion of
a   cellular   telephone  communication,  a  cordless   telephone
communication that is transmitted between the cordless  telephone
handset  and  the base unit, a public land mobile  radio  service
communication  or  a paging service communication,  the  offender
shall be fined under this title.

Richard

-----Original Message-----
From: funsec-bounces () linuxbox org [mailto:funsec-bounces () linuxbox org] On
Behalf Of Blanchard_Michael () emc com
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2006 9:44 AM
To: dparis () w3works com; funsec () linuxbox org
Subject: RE: [funsec] Amish Teen illegally wiretaps neighbors Phone

 Yes, absolutely picking up any broadcast of any kind is not illegal (well,
analog cell phone band is a different story in the US).  That's not my
concern, it's the fact that someone can be sued like that.

  There is also the issue that neither party of the conversation was aware
that they were being recorded.  Usually audio recordings like that require a
court order, or one party of the conversation has to be aware they are being
recorded.  Although it was broadcast in the clear....

  Just bugs me I guess....  


Michael P. Blanchard
Antivirus / Security Engineer, CISSP, GCIH, MCSE, MCP+I Office of
Information Security & Risk Management EMC ² Corporation 4400 Computer Dr. 
Westboro, MA 01580 

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