Is eavesdropping a no-no?

In this day and age, you overhear pretty much everything on someone’s cell phone, from who’s dating who to the last exam with the proctologist. If they are speaking in a public place, they should expect to be overheard by someone.

I think as long as you aren’t going out of your way to listen in, it’s fine.

Ahhh. I think this depends on if you would be willing to test your character on the things you hear while eavesdropping.

@NuGoonie I’m not sure what you mean. Could you be specific?

Well if it’s loud enough for you to hear it then oh well.

For example let’s say you’re on the train somewhere and you eavesdrop into two random guy’s conversation. You hear bits and pieces of what seems to you to be like a kidnapping and they’re the ones who committed this crime. Would you report this? Or would keep it to yourself in lieu of looking like an eavesdropper if you do tell someone.

It’s funny you should bring this up. At work, a couple of times my co-workers just up and left me at lunch time. They went out to eat and never said anything to me. When I brought this up to my cubicle neighbor she said, “Well, didn’t you hear us talking about going to lunch?” And I said, “I don’t make it a habit to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations.” But I was treated like it was my fault for not eavesdropping.

@ NuGoonie
I would not be embarrassed at anything I overheard or in being found out I eavesdropped, but I wouldn’t run to the police unless I was really sure something criminal had gone on. I think criminals would not be discussing ‘business’ on a train. However, they might be discussing a scene in a script or a plot for a story. They might even be trying to stir up the people around them as a prank (unwise though that might be).

@Sunny2 I know that, but I was just trying to come up with an example. I don’t know if you got my point or not, but twas a lousy example I guess.

@NuGoonie I think I probably wouldn’t work to hear any thing said in hushed voices. And I think anything said that was really private would not be said in full voice. As Silky1 said, “If it’s loud enough to hear . . .” Some people have no idea how loud or resonant their voices are.

Shame on me but if people are speaking loudly enough for me to hear, I listen and if they say something quirky or funny, I write it in my notebook. I am a writer so I am interested in the way people speak. The tone and the pace as well as what they actually say. I like to write down the phrasing.

I was watching The Book Show on Sky the other day and an author said she secretly records conversations that are fascinating. It helps her write dialogue I guess. I wouldn’t go that far. It is illegal to record people’s conversations without them knowing here.

I think though, it depends on what you do with the information you hear. If you just overhear that’s one thing. If you report back to other people and possibly cause harm, that’s another thing entirely.

It depends on what you mean by “no-no”.

Generally, it’s frowned upon, but as others have said, if you’re not going out of your way to overhear the conversation of others, and if you’re not using the information you overhear to cause harm, it’s okay, and yes, sometimes amusing. See this site, for instance.

Overhearing can be illegal (or at the very least unethical), if you gain material nonpublic information about a publicly traded company, and trade upon such information.

I don’t regard overhearing conversations in a public place to be eavesdropping at all. People do not have a “reasonable expectation of privacy” in any public place. If they’re speaking loudly enough to be heard by others, that is THEIR fault (and responsibility) NOT YOURS.

To me, eavesdroping would be standing outside a closed door with your ear to a glass in order to better hear what’s being said inside the room. Eavesdropping is placing an electronic listening and/or recording device surreptitiously near someone specifically to have access to their private conversations.

If they are stupid enough to discuss IN PUBLIC things they don’t want heard in anything above a whisper, the consequences and responsibility are theirs and theirs alone.

The fault is theirs, not yours.

Funny this should come up now. Yesterday I was at our pool watching my daughter’s swimming lesson. Part way through the lesson two men and a teenage boy decided to sit and discuss something at the end of the table I was sitting at. I thought they were going to interview him for a job but I was wrong. Over the course of the next 15 minutes I learned that the youth was in violation of the pools sexual conduct policies and he was being officially warned. I got all the nitty gritties of exactly what happened.

I was mad…primarily at the pool official but also at the boy’s father. Why oh why wouldn’t they find an office somewhere this kid could have some privacy?!

Was I eavesdropping? Not in my book. I was peacefully enjoying my daughter’s lesson when they moved into a range that I couldn’t help but hear what was going on.

Eavesdropping, to me, is creeping into earshot to hear something somebody has tried to keep private.

Only if you get caught!

Anything said within your hearing is a public utterance. It’s not your job to avoid hearing, it’s the speakers job to avoid talking in public.

The only thing you should avoid is repeating what you hear to a third party, not counting the above example, since no names were used.