How did phone taps work in older movies?

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A classic movie scene.

Boss is having a private phonecall in his office with a business partner meanwhile her secretary is closely listening to their conversation simply just by picking her own phone on the desk.

How is she able to listen to the phonecall?

Was this a popular thing back in the days?

Were people aware that this could happen?

How could it be prevented?

In: Technology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

She’s able to listen because it’s the same line. This was a very familiar situation to people with home phones with multiple extensions; if you picked up the phone while someone else was talking, you could listen to, and participate in, the conversation.

I realize that for people who did not grow up with a landline phone in their home this can seem confusing.

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