I have friends who suspect that their neighbor is listening in on them. This is an ongoing crazy neighbor situation (I won’t go into the specifics). The neighbor does have several video cameras pointed at their back and front yard, so it makes sense that if he could listen to conversations in their house, he would. These two houses are separated by about 15 feet and a fence. My friend’s house has a single window in a rarely used room that faces this neighbor. There is no evidence that bugs have been placed (let’s assume that there are no bugs). How hard would it be for someone to set up some kind of electronic eavesdropping in this situation?
God, people have to really worry about this crap? What would a neighbor gain from eavesdropping on private conversation. Unless, I suppose he thinks something criminal is happening.
I would be tempted to put a real show on for him.
Oh, yea aren’t bugs illegal or at least not allowed by police?
Gonna go with: Not Hard. Dunno how good it is at getting through windows, but there’s always that good old laser microphone tech that turns windows into speakers.
It would be fun to have a drone fly out of nowhere (certainly not his house, cough, cough) and hover right at the camera. Do they make remote spray cans?
Dennis
The biggest problem is time. Every hour of listening to your neighbor costs you an hour. Even if you had some tech to compress the time you can beat it by putting on talk radio for a day.
It’s the same problem with video survallence. If you know something happened within a window of time, it’s great, but just monitoring it is literally a 24/7 job.
Very easy. I have microphones and cameras all around my house. If I care to listen, I can hear any “outside voice” conversations of my neighbors on their patios or decks. The only time I’ve actually listened to conversations is when the recording is triggered by movement (nearby movement triggers all cameras and mics to record for a few minutes – if I find recordings when I get home, I review them and sometimes hear an unrelated conversation next door).
FWIW: All cameras are aimed such that no view of neighbor’s decks or outside spaces are captured. With the exception of the street camera, only my property is in the FOV.
Fulfillment of voyeuristic fantasies? Vindication or disproof of paranoid theories? Fodder for neighbourhood gossip? Relief from boredom? I’m sure there are plenty of reasons that might make it worthwhile for a sufficiently unscrupulous or unhinged person with a lot of time on their hands.
Just curious - why?
Totally false. As Pullin indicates in the post after yours, they sell motion activated cameras. As for audio, I can tell by looking at a digital audio file where there is/not noise. I can them move the pointer to that time in the file to listen as to whether it’s conversation, animals (birds chirping, a cat fight) or a firetruck going by.
Yes, If you’re monitoring nothing most of the time. The average US household watches 5 hours of TV a day. Can any of those cameras tell the difference?
This could easily become a violation of Federal or State law. Interception of private communications by electronic means can be the basis of a PITA lawsuit. I strongly urge you to stop this. I don’t know where you live, but you should definitely contact an attorney to get advice if you want to continue doing this.
There is no fundamental difference between what you are doing and intentionally eavesdropping on your neighbors’ conversations using an RF device or a directional microphone. There is a good reason that most surveillance video cameras in public areas have their audio recording capabilities turned OFF.
In case you missed my point, it is one thing for you to be in your yard and (unintentionally) hear your neighbors. It is totally different for you to electronically record what you are hearing.
Not that I disagree with your post generally, although it sounds a little over the top, but are you saying that I don’t have a right to stand in my back yard (for example) and record any sounds that come into it? I suspect you are wrong on that point.
The only time I heard my neighbors having a conversation was one night when I had my windows open and they were having an argument in the driveway. Our houses are at least 100’ apart, and there are trees and undergrowth between us. Other neighbors are even farther away. Anyone monitoring us would be bored to tears.
Nope. IANAL, but I have over 15 years experience providing technical surveillance countermeasures services. Both Federal and most State laws specifically state that you are “eavesdropping” when you:
- Use electronic means
- To record
- Communications between individuals
- When you are not a party to those communications.
You can often offer a defense that it was unintentional on your part (e.g., I wanted to record bird song and had no idea that somebody was going to be in the area while I was recording), but you’re taking a huge chance.
The situation is different when you are a party to the conversation, but even then many States make it clear that you must have the consent of both parties.
Otherwise, why can’t you place a microphone in a restaurant to record what people talk about at the table in the corner? Why can’t you use a directional microphone to hear what the people across the street are talking about in their bedroom? If people have a reasonable expectation of privacy (e.g., sitting on their back deck talking about something), it’s a big problem when a third-party is recording their conversation without their knowledge. It would be LESS of an issue if you made a video recording of them without any audio.
And, BTW, it’s a very bad idea to post to a bulletin board that you are currently doing this and KNOW that you are doing it.
IANAL either, but I suspect intent and methodology have a lot to do with it. If you are in your yard recording bird chirps for study, or road noise for a municipal complaint, or anything else that is reasonable, and you happen to capture a conversation, that’s far different than mounting permanent microphones to record conversations. Directional microphones aimed at a neighbors property would again be different than omnidirectional one. Lots of gray areas here, I suspect.
I still don’t understand why any one individual would need or want to do this. The FBI or the CIA, maybe recording for terror crimes or mafia-type stuff. But your average Joe Blow neighbor guy. Seems stalkerish behaviour at least. My neighbors are trees and wildlife, plus we are boring as hell. So no worries for me. My eldest daughter lives in a condo, God I hope no one is listening to her family, they would be weirded out.
While I would have agreed with you a short while ago, my friend’s experience says otherwise. When they file complaints about the cameras (which are clearly pointed at their yard) those complaints are returned marked “no probable cause found”. It does not appear that there is any criminal remedy. While they could certainly pursue a civil suit, that would be long and costly.
BTW, as to why an individual would want to do something like this, it seems to boil down (in this case) to crazy.
That kinda crazy living next door would scare me. What’s to stop him from deciding he doesn’t like what your doing and coming over to stop you, maybe with force. Yea, I would swear out a complaint and keep calling the police. I don’t know why stalker laws don’t provide some kind of remedy.
The AR-15 I would own if I lived next door to someone like that.
What if the neighbor has an AR-15?