Wacky Wireless News - Your Butt Dials Can Be Used Against You

Posted on Aug 26th 2015

We've all done it before - you're going about your day, minding your own business, when you look down at your phone and find that it has inexplicably called a random contact and left them a five minute voicemail of who knows what. Panic sets in as you fumble for the end button. Did they hear you singing to your car's radio? Chatting with coworkers?

Other than the mild embarrassment that you may feel after butt-dialing your old gym trainer or former boss, if there’s anything derogatory said, it may be used against you in court -- to your detriment!

Case in point, the Sixth Circuit Federal Court in Kentucky recently ruled that “A person who 'pocket-dials' a third party during a conversation does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.” This was the result of the case of Bertha Mae Huff and James Harold Huff vs. Carol Spaw where the defendant (Spaw) overheard Huff “privately” discuss plans to discriminate against the company’s CEO Candace McGraw.

Huff, the now former chairman of the Kenton County, Ky. Airport Board - which oversees the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, sued Spaw, who was the executive assistant to McGraw.

From the hotel balcony while on vacation in Italy, Huff accidentally dialed the office and Spaw answered. When she realized that the call may have been accidental she grew suspicious after hearing of the ill-fated plan. She began to take notes and passed them along to her boss.

The Court says that Huff “lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy” despite the fact that he placed the call -- albeit unknowingly.

So, the lesson to be learned from all of this -- besides not planning to act on ill-intentions -- is to make sure that your mobile phone device is secure. What can be worse than having your cellphone stolen or lost? Basically giving up your privacy rights while unknowingly using it.