If The Sanzen can get banned for having a poetry slam on the roof, Creepy Guy should get banned for violating employees’ personal space via a blatantly illegal listening device.
There is nothing illegal about listening. Or about amplified listening (all hearing aids do that). In most places, there is no established legal right to privacy in general, and hence use of listening devices to invade privacy isn’t a crime (except that police use of them may be restricted). Even a civil suit probably wouldn’t succeed unless the conversation happened in a place where there was reasonable expectation of privacy, and the sales floor of a department store during business hours most certainly wouldn’t qualify.
Whether it SHOULD be illegal is a different question.
One step forward, two steps back.
If The Sanzen can get banned for having a poetry slam on the roof, Creepy Guy should get banned for violating employees’ personal space via a blatantly illegal listening device.
There is nothing illegal about listening. Or about amplified listening (all hearing aids do that). In most places, there is no established legal right to privacy in general, and hence use of listening devices to invade privacy isn’t a crime (except that police use of them may be restricted). Even a civil suit probably wouldn’t succeed unless the conversation happened in a place where there was reasonable expectation of privacy, and the sales floor of a department store during business hours most certainly wouldn’t qualify.
Whether it SHOULD be illegal is a different question.