via The Journal Times...
When we're using cordless phones, can others pick up our conversations?
"Yes, depending on the kind of phone you use," according to a fact sheet from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer-oriented group based in California. "In most cases, your cordless phone conversations are probably overheard only briefly and accidentally. But there are people who make it a hobby to listen to cordless phone calls using radio scanners."
Analog phones, which include most older ones, are more susceptible to eavesdropping. Nothing's a guarantee, the mildly paranoid-sounding fact sheet points out, but newer digital models often have better built-in security features.
Those include channel hopping, which constantly changes the frequency during a call, and more complicated stuff known as digital spread spectrum technology (DSST) and digital enhanced cordless technology (DECT). (more)
