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Illinois prosecutors have charged a 13-year-old student with felony eavesdropping for recording his conversation with two school administrators. Should he be found guilty and sentenced, a conviction could land him a minimum of one year in prison. According to TechDirt:
The [Illinois] law forbids recordings without all parties' consent. It would seem that the school officials' refusal to discuss anything further once they were informed they were being recorded should have been enough. The conversation was ended, along with the recording. If they were concerned they said something they shouldn't have during the previous ten minutes, maybe should have restrained themselves during the argument, rather than ruin a 13-year-old's life with a bad law Illinois legislators refuse to rewrite. Given how often this law is used to protect the powerful, it's hardly surprising legislators haven't expressed a serious interest in fixing it.
Everyone from the administrators to the prosecutors and those in between had a lot of discretion available to stop the chain of events, but all chose not to stop it.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @05:18PM (1 child)
It is quite simple. Assume anyone you are talking to in an adversarial manner could be bugged. Unless it was agreed upon beforehand, any conversation in a public building such as a school should have no expectation of privacy. If you work for a government in any capacity, the general rule is unless information is explicitly protected, assume that by law it will be available to the general public.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Monday July 02 2018, @06:05PM
You reach too far.
Nothing in law dictates that every conversation outside your home is fair game for anyone with a microphone.
That you believe it is, just shows how pathetically low your expectations of freedom really are.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.