1. SubscriberDrewnogal
    Constant Gardener
    The Plot
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    11 Mar '18 11:48
    Has the internet killed this?
  2. Gothenburg
    Joined
    11 Mar '16
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    11 Mar '18 11:52
    What is it?
  3. Joined
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    11 Mar '18 12:20
    Originally posted by @torunn
    What is it?
    Surreptitiously listening into a conversation you should not be privy to.
  4. Joined
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    16940
    11 Mar '18 12:44
    Originally posted by @divegeester
    Surreptitiously listening into a conversation you should not be privy to.
    Sometimes you can't help but hear and listen...
  5. Gothenburg
    Joined
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    11 Mar '18 12:54
    Originally posted by @trev33
    Sometimes you can't help but hear and listen...
    You can pick up a lot of talk on trams and buses - couples, friends talking and cell phones of course - but most of it is not meant as confidential.
  6. santa cruz, ca.
    Joined
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    11 Mar '18 13:02
    aren't forums and chat rooms the perfect places to eavesdrop?
    also it's very hard not to eavesdrop when people are yakking on their cell phones
  7. Joined
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    11 Mar '18 13:13
    Originally posted by @torunn
    You can pick up a lot of talk on trams and buses - couples, friends talking and cell phones of course - but most of it is not meant as confidential.
    Eavesdroping isn't restricted to conversations people want to be private, basically any conversations going on around you. I do it all the time at work not so much elsewhere. People watching however i do enjoy.
  8. Joined
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    11 Mar '18 13:131 edit
    Eavesdropping is not overhearing conversations being made in a public space, it is actively listening to a private conversation being made in a place where the conversarionalists consider themselves to be in private.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eavesdropping

    I.e. historically, standing near the eaves of the roof where sound can carry from one room through the eaves to the next or outside.

    A subsequent warning to the conversarionalists is “walls have ears”.
  9. Subscribermlb62
    mlb62
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    11 Mar '18 13:37
    In the USA, our government can, and does, listen to any phone conversation, for security reasons only...lol ha ha ha to that ! BIG BROTHER !
  10. Joined
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    41301
    11 Mar '18 15:53
    Originally posted by @lemondrop
    aren't forums and chat rooms the perfect places to eavesdrop?
    also it's very hard not to eavesdrop when people are yakking on their cell phones
    I believe the current term for chatroom eavesdropping is:
    "Lurking". 😲
  11. Joined
    29 Dec '08
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    6788
    11 Mar '18 16:10
    early 17th century: back-formation from eavesdropper (late Middle English) ‘a person who listens from under the eaves,’ from the obsolete noun eavesdrop ‘the ground onto which water drips from the eaves,’ probably from Old Norse upsardropi, from ups ‘eaves’ + dropi ‘a drop.
  12. Standard memberHandyAndy
    Read a book!
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    11 Mar '18 19:39
    Originally posted by @ogb
    In the USA, our government can, and does, listen to any phone conversation, for security reasons only...lol ha ha ha to that ! BIG BROTHER !
    Do you know that from experience?
  13. Joined
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    173581
    11 Mar '18 19:46
    Originally posted by @trev33
    Eavesdroping isn't restricted to conversations people want to be private, basically any conversations going on around you. I do it all the time at work not so much elsewhere. People watching however i do enjoy.
    I too love people watching. I try to imagine one of two things about people I watch. 1: what kind of animal they remind me of and 2: what they might do (as in employment).
  14. Gothenburg
    Joined
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    11 Mar '18 19:532 edits
    Originally posted by @great-big-stees
    I too love people watching. I try to imagine one of two things about people I watch. 1: what kind of animal they remind me of and 2: what they might do (as in employment).
    I just look at how people look, and I amazed to think that we all look different, everyone of us. That keeps my mind busy at times. But I'm not so curious at what people say.
  15. SubscriberDrewnogal
    Constant Gardener
    The Plot
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    11 Mar '18 21:532 edits
    Originally posted by @great-big-stees
    I too love people watching. I try to imagine one of two things about people I watch. 1: what kind of animal they remind me of and 2: what they might do (as in employment).
    I like it when I can spot the dominant family feature like a certain shaped nose in a three generational group of daughter, mother and grandmother.

    We have a webbed toe in our family. 😕
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