You can go to jail for it — and many journalists face this risk as they await trial.
By comparison, breaking into a telecoms substation, plugging into a landline and intercepting private phone calls and computer traffic is a really serious crime. Yet while those journalists were arrested at dawn and charged after long periods on police bail, nobody has been arraigned for bugging despite evidence over many years.
The difference between the two offences is important.
Hacking is opportunistic eavesdropping. Bugging is nothing less than espionage.
Once a bug is attached by stealth, it can monitor every spoken word and keystroke without the subscriber ever knowing. (more)
