Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Iowa

Invasion of Privacy

I feel that my civil rights are being invaded for a lot of reasons. I live in a complex. A woman in this complex is listening in on my phone conversations with her scanner. It's like a police scanner. Well I live in Clinton county where it seems it's not against the law until it happens to a lawyer, police officer, or a judge. I'm a citizen that knows my rights. This woman listens to phone conversations and works at the hospital in my town and tells everyone who uses my phone, what time phone calls go in or out of my house and who they are talking to and about what. I want to know this:

Is it against the law to listen and then tell everyone and anyone someone else's business, is it not an invasion of privacy and my civil rights?

And the police or lawyers here say its ok? Is it?


Asked on 2/25/04, 2:44 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert Luedeman solo practitioner

Re: Invasion of Privacy

This is not really a question about civil rights as much as it is a question about electronic privacy and how much you can expect.

The short answer is "not much", because the technology you are probably using broadcasts in the clear over a considerable distance. There's no more privacy than if you were talking over an amateur radio connection.

If you are using a cell phone and someone is using a scanner to intercept your conversations there may be a violation of federal law. If you are using a cordless and someone is intercepting your conversations there is probably no violation of federal law.

In either case, the only way to assure absolute privacy of your conversations is to use a secure land line or face to face communication. You can also change the frequency on your cordless.

Once you have committed your conversations to the airwaves, as you do with cordless and cell phones, such incidents are an unfortunate byproduct of the age we live in.

Scanners are everywhere and with very few exceptions the airwaves are public property.

Having committed your conversations to the public arena you no longer have any effective control over them, and what someone else may do with them.

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Answered on 2/25/04, 3:31 pm


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