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Hidden microphones that are part of a clandestine government surveillance program that has been operating around the Bay Area has been exposed.
Imagine standing at a bus stop, talking to your friend and having your conversation recorded without you knowing. It happens all the time, and the FBI doesn’t even need a warrant to do it.
Federal agents are planting microphones to secretly record conversations.
FBI agents hid microphones inside light fixtures and at a bus stop outside the Oakland Courthouse without a warrant to record conversations, between March 2010 and January 2011.
Federal authorities are trying to prove real estate investors in San Mateo and Alameda counties are guilty of bid rigging and fraud and used these recordings as evidence.
The lawyer . . . told KPIX 5 News that, “Speaking in a public place does not mean that the individual has no reasonable expectation of privacy…private communication in a public place qualifies as a protected ‘oral communication’… and therefore may not be intercepted without judicial authorization.”
California's wiretapping law is a "two-party consent" law. California makes it a crime to record or eavesdrop on any confidential communication, including a private conversation or telephone call, without the consent of all parties to the conversation. See Cal. Penal Code § 632. The statute applies to "confidential communications" -- i.e., conversations in which one of the parties has an objectively reasonable expectation that no one is listening in or overhearing the conversation. See Flanagan v. Flanagan, 41 P.3d 575, 576-77, 578-82 (Cal. 2002). A California appellate court has ruled that this statute applies to the use of hidden video cameras to record conversations as well. See California v. Gibbons, 215 Cal. App. 3d 1204 (Cal Ct. App. 1989).
originally posted by: IAMTAT
"Shady real estate tactics for profit"?
That seems like a flimsy reason to rob people of their privacy.
HIGH-powered spy microphones on street lampposts are being used by snooping council officials to listen in on private conversations.
The so-called Sigard system has been tested in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Coventry. The microphones, connected to CCTV cameras, can recognise aggressive “trigger” words and sounds, then automatically direct cameras to zoom in on the speakers.
originally posted by: MystikMushroom
It's a strange thing to ponder...that not more than 500 or so years ago, no one read to themselves. All reading was done out loud. People didn't know how to read silently...and if you were one of the very few to be able to do so, you were seen as being divinely blessed. We still see hold overs today with people unable to read without moving their lips.
originally posted by: MystikMushroom
Well, anyone could plant a hidden microphone in a public place. Who's to say they aren't?
People run their mouths to loosely anyway. The verbal vomit that dribbles out of people's mouths with their most intimate details in any given setting amazes me.
I tell people that its important to watch their thoughts, but perhaps I should be telling people to watch their mouths. We don't need to hear every single idiotic thought that pops into your head. Simply because you have the ability to say something, doesn't mean you should.
Believe it or not, some people's brains don't afford them the capacity to have an internal monolouge. They don't "hear" their own voice in their head. What they think about, they say. Their thoughts simply come out as words. When under duress, stress or danger their internal voice shouts at them -- and usually these people claim to have heard "God" or "angels" warning them of danger.
It's a strange thing to ponder...that not more than 500 or so years ago, no one read to themselves. All reading was done out loud. People didn't know how to read silently...and if you were one of the very few to be able to do so, you were seen as being divinely blessed. We still see hold overs today with people unable to read without moving their lips.
Our internal voice has something to do with the corpus callosum that connects the left and right brain hemispheres. Perhaps people that can't internalize their own dialogue have brain damage to that area (be it drug/alcohol use or trauma) or have a brain developmental issue.
*shrug*