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Is reading your wife’s e-mail a crime?

Should reading your wife's e-mail be a crime?

  • yes

    Votes: 5 25.0%
  • no

    Votes: 13 65.0%
  • other

    Votes: 2 10.0%

  • Total voters
    20

Solace

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He shouldn't have been going through his wife's e-mail, but in my opinion this should be more of a moral problem than a criminal problem. In other words, he was in the wrong, but he shouldn't go to jail or go to court over something so stupid.

A Rochester Hills man faces up to 5 years in prison — for reading his wife’s e-mail.

Oakland County prosecutors, relying on a Michigan statute typically used to prosecute crimes such as identity theft or stealing trade secrets, have charged Leon Walker, 33, with a felony after he logged onto a laptop in the home he shared with his wife, Clara Walker.

Using her password, he accessed her Gmail account and learned she was having an affair. He now is facing a Feb. 7 trial. She filed for divorce, which was finalized earlier this month.

Legal experts say it’s the first time the statute has been used in a domestic case, and it might be hard to prove.

Read more: Is reading your wife’s e-mail a crime? | LandoftheFreeish.com
 
Private communication is not private communication. Marriage does not give implied consent to access private email accounts any more than it gives implied consent to sex.
 
Yeesh. This is how I figured out that my ex was cheating on me, as well. Now I learn I was committing a crime!
 
What if he just guessed it because it wasn't a very secure password? ^.^
 
Private communication is not private communication. Marriage does not give implied consent to access private email accounts any more than it gives implied consent to sex.

I would think it would depend on how he got her password. If she gave it to him, she was implying consent for him to access her account.
 
somehow I suspect she is not going to jail for being a cheating whore.
 
What if he just guessed it because it wasn't a very secure password? ^.^

Then he shouldn't have accessed the e-mail. I know my wife's password because she told it to me, although I would never access her e-mail account even if I did think she was cheating. I'd confront her directly if I thought that was going on.

If she told it to him, she gets whatshe deserves and charging him with a crime for it is total bull****. If he guessed it, I still don't think he deserves to be charged with a felony, but a misdemeanor would be somewhat appropriate.

Also, the security of passwords is an interesting thing. If a couple shares passwords for bank accounts and such, it's far easier to figure out what their passwords are elsewhere.
 
If the wife were being open about her infidelity, I suspect the husband would never have read her e-mails. Here's the thing...most of us don't want to confront our significant others about the issue of infidelity without proof. If you have that conversation, you feel that you're as good as wrecking your marriage. Bringing it up without proof, too, you feel crazy, as if you're some absurdly jealous freak who is just imagining things. I certainly felt that I'd better have my ducks in a row before going there.

Infidelity sucks, because it is basically a conspiracy on the part of one party to deprive the other party of information that they are legitimately entitled to. It's not just cheating, it's a major health risk. Is my cheating ex-spouse using a condom or is he exposing me to potentially fatal STDs?

The worst part of cheating isn't that your spouse is sticking his dick in someone else (or vice versa). It's that he's lying and deceiving, depriving you of information that you need to make an informed decision about the marriage.

I guessed my ex's password---very easily--because he used it elsewhere, and also because the recovery questions contained information that was known to me. The one piece of information that I DIDN'T have was that he was having a clandestine sexual relationship with someone else. It's funny how crazy that bit of information can make us.
 
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If the wife were being open about her infidelity, I suspect the husband would never have read her e-mails. Here's the thing...most of us don't want to confront our significant others about the issue of infidelity without proof. If you have that conversation, you feel that you're as good as wrecking your marriage. Bringing it up without proof, too, you feel crazy, as if you're some absurdly jealous freak who is just imagining things. I certainly felt that I'd better have my ducks in a row before going there.

Infidelity sucks, because it is basically a conspiracy on the part of one party to deprive the other party of information that they are legitimately entitled to. It's not just cheating, it's a major health risk. Is my cheating ex-spouse using a condom or is he exposing me to potentially fatal STDs?

The worst part of cheating isn't that your spouse is sticking his dick in someone else (or vice versa). It's that he's lying and deceiving, depriving you of information that you need to make an informed decision about the marriage.

I guessed my ex's password---very easily--because he used it elsewhere, and also because the recovery questions contained information that was known to me. The one piece of information that I DIDN'T have was that he was having a clandestine sexual relationship with someone else. It's funny how crazy that bit of information can make us.

All true, but regardless of why someone is doing it, they are still stealing information by hacking the e-mal account.
 
He shouldn't have been going through his wife's e-mail, but in my opinion this should be more of a moral problem than a criminal problem. In other words, he was in the wrong, but he shouldn't go to jail or go to court over something so stupid.

Geesh what a crappy situation.

You don't even need to directly ACCESS and log into someone's email to find out what they're typing - just get a keylogger and done :shrug:

She's obviously trying to **** him over because she was angry that she didn't get away with it - imagine everyone's reactions if it was a MAN who cheated and the wife found out - everyone would be rooting for HER (standing up for herself and all that feminist jazz) and not supporting her going to jail.

He didn't even need to hack in - I've accidentally left my email open countless times and so has my husband. Granted - we're not cheating on eachother and there's nothing to 'look at' - but still.

If you don't want ti coming back to bite you - don't put it in writing and DON'T do it on a computer.
 
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He shouldn't have been going through his wife's e-mail, but in my opinion this should be more of a moral problem than a criminal problem. In other words, he was in the wrong, but he shouldn't go to jail or go to court over something so stupid.

Beat you by about half a day... :2razz:

http://www.debatepolitics.com/news-weird/88600-man-faces-five-years-jail-reading-wifes-emails.html

On topic, however, I've been guilty of using email to catch a dirty, rotten, cheating ex. It really wasn't intended though. She had created a clandestine gmail account to communicate with the other guy and she made the mistake of leaving it logged in. I went to Google some information on her computer...and found a lot more than I was intending to. :shock:

All for the best though, after kicking the whore to the curb, the next girl I dated I ended up marrying and we now have two beautiful kids! :mrgreen:
 
Living well = the best revenge. Though, reaming them in the divorce settlement comes close.

I partially agree, but I'll modify it a little bit. The best revenge is your whore-ish, still-single ex running into your wife in the convenience store, who is wearing a giant rock on her finger and carrying the two cutest kids in the world in her shopping cart. ;)

(happened over the Christmas weekend, what are the odds)
 
The best revenge is your whore-ish, still-single ex running into your wife in the convenience store, who is wearing a giant rock on her finger and carrying the two cutest kids in the world in her shopping cart. ;)

I find some satisfaction in the fact that my boyfriend is 10 years younger and a foot taller than my cheating ex, and he's the most wonderful man on earth. All's well that ends well. It sucked at the time, but these days, life is cake.
 
I find some satisfaction in the fact that my boyfriend is 10 years younger and a foot taller than my cheating ex, and he's the most wonderful man on earth. All's well that ends well. It sucked at the time, but these days, life is cake.

LOL. My ex is living in self-inflicted misery with a heffer who can't stop spitting them out.
While I oh so kindly reprieved him of his arrears - I know that no matter how much he works and earns it'll never be 'enough'
 
I find some satisfaction in the fact that my boyfriend is 10 years younger and a foot taller than my cheating ex, and he's the most wonderful man on earth. All's well that ends well. It sucked at the time, but these days, life is cake.

My son's soon to be ex-wife, who is a cheating whore, left him and moved home to daddy about 6 weeks ago. In that time, since he no longer has to finance her partying, manicures, haircuts, tanning salons, etc, he has managed to put nearly 2K into a savings account. She is still living at home with daddy because she can't afford to get a place of her own.


Girl I dated in college dumped me for a guy she thought was "better". nearly 30 years later, she has been married and divorced twice and lives in a crappy single wide trailer. I have been married to the same lady for 26 years and have a 3K sq ft home with an in ground pool out back.
 
You aren't legally entitled to that information.

Says who? I guess the courts will decide, won't they? However, I don't believe that a spouse has a legal right to privacy from their spouse, particularly on the subject of infidelity.
 
Marriage does not give implied consent to access private email accounts any more than it gives implied consent to sex.

While I'm not wild about one spouse sneaking into the other's e-mail account, I'm even less wild about situations which might require that kind of prying.

The thing about marriage that makes comparing this to sex an apples-and-oranges thing is that this isn't necessarily about gratification or domination or hate -- it could easily about protecting one's own interests, or that of one's children.

Marriage means all sorts of legal, financial and custodial entanglements. It is each spouse's responsibility to look out for the interests of their children and themselves, because nobody else is going to do it for them -- and sometimes that means hiring PIs, going through the trash, checking cell phones, reviewing browser history and looking at e-mail.

Are these the sorts of activities that are necessary in a healthy marriage built on love and trust? No. Are these the sorts of activities that are necessary when things begin to break down? Absolutely.

We as a nation have overemphasized criminalization. If anything, this guy should be subject to a civil action, not criminal prosecution. He didn't take out a credit card in his wife's name, he was looking for infidelity.
 
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