Telephone tapping in the Eastern Bloc

Telephone tapping in the Eastern Bloc was a widespread method of the mass surveillance of the population by the secret police.

[2] During martial law in Poland, official censorship was introduced, which included open phone tapping.

[4] Created with Soviet assistance in 1954, the outfit monitored all voice and electronic communications inside and outside of Romania.

They bugged telephones and intercepted all telegraphs and telex messages, as well as placed microphones in both public and private buildings.

[7][8] The 2006 film The Lives of Others concerns a Stasi captain who is listening to the conversations of a suspected dissident writer in a bugged apartment with equipment including telephone-tapping.