[dalke]

Umm, conversations in a public meeting which are easily overheard by others are not private conversation.

To have a reasonable expectation of privacy in an otherwise public area, one must make some sort of effort to establish that privacy. For example, by speaking so softly that no one else can listen in without technological means, or move to a room with solid doors and walls so that the eavesdropper must place one's ear against the door to hear the conversation.

This applies everywhere. Homes are considered private areas, and having sex is (usually) considered a private act. But if I hear my neighbors talking dirty while having sex, then if I want I can complain to them or tell others about the problem, even if they mean for it to be a private act in a private area.

You see this breakdown of public/private conversations all the time. Someone talking on a cell phone while on a bus may consider the conversation private, but if 1/2 the bus can hear the speaker, it's certainly not private even if the custom is to ignore the speaker.