You’ve just had a conversation with your roommate about your upcoming wedding and you’re starting to feel a little overwhelmed. You step out onto your balcony to get some fresh air and take a break from the planning when you hear your neighbor’s voice coming from their apartment. It sounds like they’re talking about your wedding plans and wondering if they’ll be invited!
You start to feel uneasy. You’re wondering if your neighbor has been listening in on your conversations and what you can do to prevent them from eavesdropping.
You can prevent your nosy neighbor from listening in on your private conversations by implementing different methods to soundproof your walls, doors, and windows, using your TV or music to mask your voice, or investing in a white noise machine. But before all that, don’t forget to talk with your neighbor about your concerns.
It can be quite unnerving to think that your neighbor may be listening to your private conversations. Whether you’re discussing personal matters or business plans, it’s important to take steps to protect your privacy. In this article, we will discuss when to suspect that your neighbor is eavesdropping, how to confirm your suspicions and steps to take to prevent your neighbors from eavesdropping and protect your privacy!
Is Eavesdropping a Crime? How Else Is It A Problem?
In the United States, under California Penal Code Section 632, it is considered a crime to utilize any type of recording or sound amplification device to listen in on another person’s conversation without their consent.
In addition to it being a crime, eavesdropping can also have a chilling effect on our ability to freely express ourselves, as we may self-censor out of fear that our words can be heard by others and may be used against us.
No one likes to think that someone might be eavesdropping on their private conversations, but it’s a real concern that people should be aware of. After all, our private conversations can often contain sensitive or confidential information, such as our financial situation or personal relationship problems. And if someone is eavesdropping on our business transactions, they could gain an unfair advantage.
Signs Your Neighbour Is Eavesdropping
There are a few signs that you can look for that may suggest that your neighbor is eavesdropping on your conversations.
- You often find your neighbor standing next to your door when you open your door or when you’re coming up the stairs on your way back home.
- You hear your neighbor’s footsteps stop at your doorstep for a few seconds (or longer) every time they’re leaving or coming back home.
- During a casual conversation, your neighbor mentions something that you had previously only discussed with your close friends or family.
- Your neighbor shows up unannounced with an odd gift like a wall clock, a picture frame, or a vase and they unwrap it quickly and suggest a place to put it in your living room.
- You notice white drywall dust on the floor next to a wall which may suggest someone may have drilled a pinhole in your wall.
- You see a tiny hole in the ceiling or a small discoloration in the wall or ceiling.
- You notice electrical wall plates, smoke detectors or light fixtures appear crooked or misaligned.
- You find a loose screw in an air vent plate or an electrical wall plate.
- If you have an old-fashion AM/FM radio, you may notice unusual radio interference that will override your favorite channel broadcast.
- You hear unusual static popping sounds on your telephone which can be caused by electrical interference from the listening device.
- You notice strange listening devices in your neighbor’s apartment, such as a baby monitor, parabolic microphone, or high-tech listening device.
How To Confirm Your Suspicions That Your Neighbor is Eavesdropping?
If you’ve been having nagging suspicions that your private conversations are not as private as you thought they were, whether you live in an apartment complex with thin walls, or simply have a nosy neighbor, it’s easy to feel like you’re being eavesdropped on.
So you think your neighbors are listening through your wall or your door? Here are a few ways to confirm that your suspicions are well-founded.
- Pay attention to any footsteps you hear in the hallway outside your apartment. If you notice that the footsteps stop near your door whenever you’re having a conversation, carry on with your conversation in a normal voice as you walk towards the door and look through the peephole. If you see your neighbor’s ear pressed up against the door, you’ve caught them red-handed!
- Start a pretend conversation with your roommate or family member. Mention a piece of interesting but fake information or plan. For example say that you’re thinking about adopting a dog or that your mother, two aunts, and five nieces will be visiting and staying over for a month. If your neighbor brings up your fake plans in a conversation with you or someone else, then they were definitely eavesdropping.
- If you’ve received any gifts from your neighbor, examine them carefully. Look for any signs that they might house a surveillance device, like a small hole in the picture frame or wall clock which may be the inlet of a listening device, or a small circle with a reflective surface which could be the lens of a hidden camera.
- Examine your outlets and light switch and vent covers. If they’re loose, askew, or missing a screw then you should carefully take the cover off and look for any listening devices or cameras that may have been installed. If you’ve never taken a light switch or vent cover off or don’t know how then ask a friend or professional to help you.
- If you use an old-fashioned AM/FM radio, turn it on and change the channel slowly as you walk around your apartment or house to see if you can pick up any static interference.
- Purchase an affordable scanner to help you search for and locate any hidden listening or surveillance devices.
While there’s no surefire way to confirm that you’re being eavesdropped on short of actually finding a hidden listening device or camera in your home, paying attention to these signs can give you a pretty good idea.
How to Prevent Your Neighbor From Eavesdropping
Whether you were able to confirm your suspicions or not, and whether you were successful in locating a hidden listening device or not, if you think that your neighbor is listening in on your conversations then it’s important to take steps to prevent them from doing so.
Here are a few ways to keep your conversations private:
1. Talk to Your Neighbor
If you think your neighbor may be eavesdropping on your private conversations, the first thing you should do is try to talk to them about it. There is great value in an open and honest conversation.
This is a sensitive issue, so it’s important to not accuse them outright of listening in on your conversations. Instead, try to bring up the topic casually.
For example, you might say something like, “I may be wrong, but I noticed that you seem to stand in the hallway a lot” or “I’ve noticed your footsteps always stop at my door”. Then, explain that you are worried that they may overhear your private conversations and that you value your privacy and would appreciate it if they respected your boundaries.
Take care that your neighbor may become defensive or react negatively so it would be a good idea to have a friend or family member present as a mediator.
This approach may work if your neighbor is simply curious and not intentionally listening in on your conversations. Unfortunately, some people will deliberately eavesdrop on others regardless of how many boundaries you set.
If they continue to listen in despite your request, you may need to take additional measures. Keep reading for some practical measures you can take to protect your privacy.
2. Soundproof Your Home
Sound is a type of energy wave that can travel through different mediums such as air, water, wood, and even steel, by producing vibrations in the particles of those mediums.
You may have noticed that you can sometimes hear your neighbor’s voice or the sound of their TV coming from next door. This is because the sound waves produced by their voices or the sound of their TV can travel through the walls.
Chances are if you can hear your neighbor’s voice then they can also hear yours. If you’re concerned about your conversations being overheard then you should soundproof your home to prevent the sound waves from traveling through the walls.
Most people do not take the acoustic properties of an apartment or house into consideration when buying a new property. In the US, the STC (Sound Transmission Class) is used to measure the sound insulation of a building and its walls. The higher the STC number, the better the wall is at blocking sound.
If your walls have a low STC rating of around 20-25, you will hear almost everything happening on the other side, and your neighbor on the other side of the wall will even be able to understand what you’re saying when speaking softly.
At an STC of 35-40, loud speech will still be heard across the walls with variable clarity.
It’s only when you reach an STC of 45 or higher that the walls will significantly reduce the level of noise transmission, and speech will be only faintly audible and not intelligible. This is the threshold at which privacy begins.
| STC (Sound Transmission Class) | What can be heard at this level |
|---|---|
| 25 | Soft speech can be heard and understood |
| 30 | Normal speech can be heard and understood |
| 35 | Loud speech can be heard and understood |
| 40 | Loud speech can be heard, but not understood |
| 45 | The threshold at which privacy begins |
| 50 | Speech cannot be heard and loud sounds can be heard, but are very faint |
| 60+ | At this level, good soundproofing begins. Neighbors generally are not disturbed by very loud speech from inside. |
If you live in an apartment then chances are your walls are made out of drywall, which is not the best material for soundproofing. Most standard drywalls in residential buildings are rated somewhere in the range of about 30–40 STC.
You can improve the STC of partition drywall by building it from a more dense material (sound insulation improves by about 5 decibels for every doubling of mass), but if this is not feasible due to your local building codes, then there are other options to improve the soundproofing of your walls.
- Use a Sound Absorber
Sound waves usually reflect off of hard surfaces and create an echo or reverberation. These reflections can be minimized by adding softer materials to the room that will absorb the sound instead of reflecting it. While this will not necessarily soundproof the room or directly prevent your neighbor from listening in, it will make it more difficult for them to hear your conversations by reducing the overall sound level in the room.
Furniture is a great way to do this, as you can move it around to wherever you need it most. If you want to make use of your furniture as an effective absorber for sound, make sure you have plush fabric furniture as this is more effective than leather furniture.
Rugs and carpets are also a great option for absorbing sound and reducing echo in your room and minimizing the frequencies of sounds transmitted to your neighbor.
The advantage of using furniture and carpets in this manner is that these are usually already available in your home and will therefore most likely not incur any extra cost.
Another option is to add acoustic panels to the walls. These are made of absorbent material that will deaden any sound that hits them reducing the sound bouncing off your walls. They can be hung on the walls you need the most with Velcro or adhesive strips, which will allow you to remove them easily when you no longer need them without leaving any damage to your wall.
- Install Bookshelves
Another method to create a makeshift barrier between you and your neighbor is by installing wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
This will serve as a physical barrier that will absorb some of the sounds from your apartment and prevent it from traveling through to your neighbor’s apartment.
For this to be effective the bookshelves must cover the entire shared wall and be filled with books. If you don’t have enough books to fill all shelves, then consider adding doors to vacant shelves. This will help reduce the sound transmission and you can also use these spaces as storage for blankets or seasonal clothing which will help with dampening the sound transmission even further.
It is also important to make sure there are no gaps between the bookshelf and the wall as sound can easily travel through these spaces. You could add a layer of fabric to the back of the shelves to further increase their sound-absorbing properties. For the best effect, you can attach a sound-proof blanket to the back of your bookshelf to block and absorb the sound.
Alternatively, you can apply green glue to the back of the bookcase before attaching it to the wall which will also help reduce sound transmission.
- Add An Extra Layer of Drywall
By adding an extra layer of drywall to your existing wall you will be increasing the mass of your wall which will increase the STC of your wall and help reduce sound transmission.
You can do this by simply attaching a second layer of 5/8 inches drywall to the existing wall using construction adhesive and screws. For best results apply green glue to the back surface of the new layer of drywall in an irregular zigzag manner to cover the entire surface of the drywall sheet.
The green glue will fill the gap between the two layers of drywall, increase the mass of the wall, help the two layers adhere together, and thereby dampen the sound transmission across the wall.
The downside of green glue is that it can be quite costly to buy the required quantity, especially if your shared wall is large. If you are on a budget then you can try using carpet glue as an adhesive instead. Jack of All Ministries suggests carpet glue is very effective in improving the STC of your wall when applied between two layers of drywall and at a fraction of the cost of green glue.
- Fill Cracks and Gaps in the Wall
You may find it hard to believe but even the smallest cracks and gaps in your shared wall can act as a conduit for sound transmission, so it’s important that you fill these gaps if you want to prevent your neighbor from hearing your private conversations.
Inspect your entire shared wall for any cracks. Pay special attention to the corners of the wall and the corners between the wall and ceiling as these are usually the weakest points. Once you have located all cracks, clean them out using a vacuum cleaner with a brush attachment to remove any dust or debris then go ahead with filling them.
Fill small cracks using drywall compound or caulk. If the crack is deep, you may need to fill the crack with the acoustic sealant. Apply the sealant generously into the crack, then apply fiberglass drywall tape over the crack and apply drywall compound over the tape making sure it is level with the surface of the wall. Allow the sealant and compound to dry completely before painting over it to match the color of your wall.
Don’t forget to remove the electric outlet and light switch covers and ensure there are no gaps between the electric box and the wall. If you find any gaps, then fill them with green glue, regular silicone caulking, or acoustic sealant. The same process can be done under air vent covers.
If the room is unfinished, meaning the drywall has not been installed yet, you can apply a product like acoustic putty pads which can be applied to the back of the electrical box to cover it completely. This product is tested for fire stopping and soundproofing. Ensure this is compliant with your local building codes.
- Add an Air Gap To Your Wall
Air is less efficient in conducting sound waves compared to solid materials because particles of air are more widely separated. Adding an air gap inside your shared wall will decrease the transmission of sound and improve the STC of the wall.
This can be done by installing resilient channels before installing the drywall. This method can be used whether you’re finishing a new drywall build or you’re adding a drywall layer to your existing wall.
A resilient channel is a metal channel that is applied to the stud framing of the shared wall and the drywall is installed over it. It is designed to improve the sound insulation of your wall by isolating the new drywall from the framing and creating a small air gap between ¼ and ½ inches behind the drywall.
The same process can be used to soundproof your ceiling to reduce sound transmission to your upstairs neighbor.
| TIP: when installing your new drywall to the resilient channels use screws of a max length of 1.5 inches to avoid puncturing the underlying studs or original wall and maintain the separation. |
It’s important to note that applying a second layer of drywall using resilient channels to a shared wall or ceiling will reduce your room dimension by about an inch. If you are renting, you may want to get your landlord’s approval before starting on this project.
- Soundproof Your Windows
Sound waves can enter and leave your apartment through your windows. Your next-door neighbor or people walking on the street can hear conversations inside your home if your windows are not soundproofed. In addition, a neighbor across the street can eavesdrop on your conversations through your window using a parabolic microphone, with some being able to pick up sound from up to 160 feet away!
There are many ways to soundproof your windows, but the most common and effective method is to install acoustic curtains. These are specially designed curtains that are made of thick fabric and multiple layers to block out sound. You can check out these sound-reducing curtains from Nicetown.
Another way to soundproof your windows is to upgrade your windows to double or triple-pane windows. With every added window pane, there is more reduction in sound transmission by adding more thickness or material for the sound waves to travel through to be heard on the other side. In addition, combining variable thickness window panes in double and triple-pane windows is even more effective in soundproofing your windows because glass panes of different thicknesses can dampen sounds at different frequencies.
Soundproofing your windows is not complete without also adding adhesive weatherstripping to the window frame. This will create a seal around your window to prevent any air gaps that might let sound in or out improving your soundproofing and insulation at the same time.
You will also need to seal any gaps or cracks around the window frame using noise-proofing caulk.
- Soundproof Your Doors
The last step in completing your home soundproofing project is to soundproof your doors. Just like your windows, doors can be a weak spot in the sound barrier of your home and cause noise to come in and your voice to carry out.
The most effective way to soundproof your doors is by replacing your hollow-core door with a solid wood door or a solid-core door. Standard doors installed by builders usually have a hollow core which does not provide much of a sound barrier. Solid wood doors, while more expensive, have a dense core made of solid wood and are thus more effective as a sound barrier and can provide an STC of above 35. Solid-core doors, on the other hand, have a dense core made of engineered wood which can provide an even higher STC value and sound barrier, but will come at an even higher cost.
Another way to improve the STC rating of your door is by adding a door sweep or complete door seal to seal the gap under the door. By doing so you will prevent sound from leaving your home under the door and be heard in the hallway.
Lastly, you can also add door weather stripping to your door frame. This will reduce sound transmission through the gap between your door and door frame and also improve your home insulation and help reduce your heating bill.
3. Turn On Your TV or Some Music
If you’ve done the most you can to soundproof your home, or your landlord will not approve any major upgrades, and you still think your neighbor can hear your conversations, then try turning on your TV or some music to mask your voice.
For best results, you may need to hang your TV with a TV mount directly on the shared wall between you and your neighbor and raise the volume of your TV just enough to be higher than your normal talking voice. You probably should not raise the volume too high though to avoid getting any noise complaints from other neighbors!
If installing the TV on the shared wall will not fit your home layout or decor, then you can keep the TV in its current location but you may need to invest in a surround speaker system and place one or two of the speaker against or facing the shared wall. You can get creative with the speakers’ placement to achieve your goal.
And if you’re just not a TV person, then just turn on some music from your phone through a Bluetooth speaker for a similar result. I personally have two JBL Flip 6 bluetooth speakers which I can pair together in PartyBoost mode and move the speakers around as I please to enjoy music where I go in the house or outside in my backyard.
4. White Noise Machine to Prevent Eavesdropping
If you don’t want to raise the volume of your TV or music, then a white noise machine can be an effective way to mask your speech.
White noise machines produce random sound patterns at all frequencies creating a sound curtain and making it difficult for someone to pick out specific words or phrases.
Additionally, the calming effect of white noise can help to reduce stress and improve sleep quality and helps mask other sounds coming into your apartment such as city traffic.
There are a variety of white noise machines on the market, so you can find one that fits your needs and budget.
DO NOT Use an Audio Jammer
| IMPORTANT LEGAL NOTE: Federal law in the US and Canada (and possibly other countries) prohibit the use of devices that intentionally block, jam, or interfere with authorized radio communications such as cell phones, police radar, GPS, and Wi-Fi. |
This information is for education and entertainment only!
Audio jammers are specialized devices that work by emitting ultrasonic waves that interfere with microphones and recording devices. The waves are inaudible to the human ear but will be picked up by microphones in recording devices and will scramble the signal, making it difficult to understand speech.
As a result, audio jammers can be used to mask private conversations or prevent recordings from being made.
Audio jammers are relatively small and portable, making them easy to use in a variety of settings. However, they are not effective against all types of recording devices, and they can be very expensive.
The use of an audio jammer is considered illegal because it can prevent emergency communications such as calls to 911 and can pose serious risks to public safety communications.
If you use an audio jammer and it prevents your neighbor from being able to make an emergency call, then you could be held liable if something bad happens as a result.
So while an audio jammer may seem like an attractive solution to prevent eavesdropping, it’s not worth the risk of breaking the law.
Protect Your Privacy
It can be frustrating when you think that your neighbor is eavesdropping on your private conversations. Not only does it violate your sense of privacy, but it can also cause tension and mistrust between you and your neighbor.
If you’ve found yourself in this situation, I’m hopeful you’ve found this article helpful in presenting some practical ideas for how to communicate with your nosy neighbor, things you can do to soundproof your home and different options to mask your voice to prevent eavesdropping.
There are more steps that you can take to protect your privacy in your home. Read more about signs to look out for that your neighbor is watching, how to upgrade your apartment privacy, and how to live a private life.
