<P> Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party, often by covert means . The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connection was an actual electrical tap on the telephone line . Legal wiretapping by a government agency is also called lawful interception . Passive wiretapping monitors or records the traffic, while active wiretapping alters or otherwise affects it . </P> <P> Lawful interception is officially strictly controlled in many countries to safeguard privacy; this is the case in all developed republics . In theory, telephone tapping often needs to be authorized by a court, and is, again in theory, normally only approved when evidence shows it is not possible to detect criminal or subversive activity in less intrusive ways; often the law and regulations require that the crime investigated must be at least of a certain severity . Illegal or unauthorized telephone tapping is often a criminal offense . However, in certain jurisdictions such as Germany and France, courts will accept illegally recorded phone calls without the other party's consent as evidence, but the unauthorized telephone tapping will still be prosecuted . </P>

What does it mean to tap a phone
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