phone hacking

noun

1. an act or instance of gaining access to a phone's voicemail, email, text messages, etc., without authorization from the phone's owner.

Other Word Forms

• phone hacker noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of phone hacking¹

First recorded in 1980–85

Example Sentences

A spokesperson for ANL has previously said it had "denied under oath that its journalists had commissioned or obtained information derived from phone hacking, phone tapping, bugging, computer or email hacking or burglary to order".

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Writer Jack Thorne has praised the "remarkable" journalists who exposed the use of phone hacking in some parts of the media, ahead of a new TV series about the scandal.

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Davies published several stories about phone hacking throughout the scandal, but public outrage reached a new level when it came to light that murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's voicemails were among those which had been hacked, giving her parents false hope that she was still alive.

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Tennant is one of more than 1,600 celebrities and other public figures to have settled out of court with News Group Newspapers, the publishers of the News of the World, over the phone hacking scandal.

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David Tennant plays Guardian journalist Nick Davies who uncovered evidence of phone hacking at the tabloid.

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