'Pocket diallers' to blame if overheard or recorded, says US federal court judge

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Have you heard the term butt dialling or pocket dialling? It comes from people stowing unlocked phones away (e.g. in their trousers' back pockets), and then inadvertently calling someone.
 
I once pocket dialled a colleague in Australia while I was telling a rather 'inappropriate' joke. 
 
Of course, like all bottom-diallers, I had no idea I was being broadcasted internationally via my stowed phone. Turned out that my Ozzie colleague thought it would make my vignette perfectly hilarious were he to put me on speaker phone, allowing his entire department to overhear me. 
 
(How we both regretted his decision when I got to the punch line…)
 
While this SNAFU was mortifying at the time, it could have been so much worse. Check out this story on CNET, where, Jay Huff, Chairman of Kentucky's Kenton County Airport Board, butt-dialled the airport’s Executive Assistant to the CEO, Carol Spaw. 
 
Spaw decided that was she was listening to was very much in the interest (from what I read, sounds like Huff was perhaps bad-mouthing the CEO). She took notes and recorded what Huff was unwittingly transmitting to her and then shared it with the members of the board.

Huff sued, claiming the recorded conversations, including an exchange with his own wife, were private. But the US Federal Court disagreed. The judge "likened the events to leaving your drapes wide open and expecting no one to peer into your house," reported CNET.
 
Let this tale be a reminder to us all to lock our phones! To avoid butt-dialling anyone, make sure your phone is locked before you pop it in your pocket or bag. 
 
 
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