Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An act of secretly listening to or recording a person's telephone or Internet conversations, often as part of a police investigation.
- noun A device that is connected to a communications circuit in a concealed fashion in order to enable a wiretap.
- transitive verb To listen to or record in secret (a conversation carried on over a telephone line or other communications channel), often as part of a police investigation.
- transitive verb To wiretap the conversations on (a telephone line or other communications channel), often as part of a police investigation.
- transitive verb To wiretap the conversations of (a person) or the communications devices in (a place).
- transitive verb To connect a concealed listening or recording device to (a telephone line).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb to tap{5} (a telephone or telegraph line) to get information surreptitiously; also, to obtain or record (information) by use of a wiretap.
- noun the act or event of tapping a telephone or telegraph line to get information surreptitiously.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
concealed device connected to atelephone or othercommunications system that allows a third party tolisten orrecord conversations . - noun The act of installing such a device.
- verb To install or to use such a device.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb tap a telephone or telegraph wire to get information
- noun the act of tapping a telephone or telegraph line to get information
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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John Sununu, R-N. H., and others that certain wiretap and record seizure provisions violate privacy rights.
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An unwarranted wiretap is perfectly legal — so long as you go to the FISA court within 3 days after the fact.
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From what I understand, the acutal process of apply for and recieving permission to wiretap is so slow, that by the time you got such permission, the opportunity would be gone.
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Today it's John Ashcroft's Justice Department, also invoking "national security," that hopes to seize the phone records of Judith Miller and Philip Shenon of The Times, claiming that what amounts to a virtual wiretap is warranted by articles about Islamic charities and terrorism published nearly three years ago.
October 2004 2004
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"The word wiretap strikes fear in the hearts of everyone, even the innocent," said Brad Balter, who runs Balter Capital Management LLC, a Boston-based firm that allocates clients 'money to hedge funds.
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Sorry – don’t have a problem with that. if a wiretap is actually “related to al Qaeda”, then there should be no problem getting a supoena.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Baby Steps To Authoritarianism 2006
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However, knowingly or not, the Brazilian people still refer to the old process - the "wiretap" - as it still exists.
Home 2009
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However, knowingly or not, the Brazilian people still refer to the old process - the "wiretap" - as it still exists.
Home 2009
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However, knowingly or not, the Brazilian people still refer to the old process - the "wiretap" - as it still exists.
Home 2009
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However, knowingly or not, the Brazilian people still refer to the old process - the "wiretap" - as it still exists.
Home 2009
bilby commented on the word wiretap
"Officers in Milan say organised crime, arms and drugs traffickers, and prostitution rings are turning to Skype in order to frustrate investigators. The police say Skype's encryption system is a secret which the company refuses to share with the authorities. Investigators have become increasingly reliant on wiretaps in recent years. Customs and tax police in Milan have sounded the alarm."
- David Willey, Italy police warn of Skype threat, BBC website, 14 Feb 2009.
February 15, 2009