Court: Wife broke law with spyware

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Clarification needed...

Was the computer solely his property or was it joint property of him & his wife? I don't see that point clarified in the article.

If it was solely his, I agree that she had no business covertly logging/intercepting messages on it and I believe the court ruled properly.

However, if they jointly owned the computer, then there should have been NO expectation of privacy on his part (at least as far as keeping data private from his wife) and I believe the court's ruling would be in error.

This is a sticky issue because the article states that it was his computer, but it never states if it was purchased solely for his own use, after separating from his wife, or if it was purchased while he was still living with his wife. Even if he purchased it solely for his own use, but was still living with his wife at the time, wouldn't it be considered community (or jointly-owned) property? If it would be, then should he have any expectation of privacy as far as she is concerned.

For example, a husband purchases a telephone answering machine for a phone line he uses for business calls at home. Would his wife be breaking the law by playing back his messages without his knowledge? It is afterall an item purchased while they are married, so isn't considered jointly owned property? Doesn't that give her a right to use it?

I'm not agreeing with what the soon-to-be-ex wife in the article did, I'm just looking for a little clarification on whether it's illegal for a spouse to view/listen to the other spouse's messages if the property (computer/answering machine/etc) is jointly owned.

Posted by: RM Antala   Posted on: 02/16/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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