Eavesdropping
To eavesdrop is to surreptitiously overhear a private conversation.
History
Ancient Anglo-Saxon law punished eavesdroppers, who skulked in the Eavesdrip of another's home, with a fine.
Techniques
Eavesdropping can also be done over telephone lines (wiretapping), email, instant messaging, and any other method of communication considered private. (If a message is publicly broadcast, witnessing it does not count as eavesdropping).
Messages can be protected against eavesdropping by employing a security service of confidentiality (or privacy). This security service is usually implemented by encryption.
In ancient China, it is said that to prevent eavesdropping when discussing important matters, soldiers would instead draw the characters on hands or papers.
The Canadian heroine Laura Secord is famous for having eavesdropped on the plans of the American army and delivering this information to the British.
Eavesdropping in fiction
Eavesdropping is something of a clichéd plot device in fiction, allowing the hero or villain to gain vital information by deliberately or accidentally overhearing a conversation. For instance, in "Letting In the Jungle" by Rudyard Kipling, Mowgli overhears the hunter Buldeo telling some men that Mowgli's adopted mother Messua is about to be executed, so Mowgli sets about rescuing her.
See also
