Keylogger/Monitoring Software: Legal or Illegal?

I can't imagine anything being illegal when it comes to checking (spying) on your own mate.
Good grief theres even a tv show (Cheaters).
Maybe I'm not understanding what your talking about, I've been known to do that.rolleyes

 

I figure anything is fare in love and war. Kinda like that old saying, "if something doesn't feel right then it probably isn't.
Myself I took up a strategic location, inconspicuous surveillance then followed up with an iron pipe and a baseball bat.
Affective

 

I knew there was a reason I liked you LOL

 

Defended myself for 23 years for no reason other then his twisted mind and probably his guilt, so the kids grown, gone, caught him, lucky I'm not in prison

 

Touchy subject in my opinoin...as far as spying...I wouldn't think that would be illegal...after all, people hire PI's to trail their spouses to catch them cheating. As far as the keylogger issue...I would have to go with CP on that one. However...trying to prove who rightfully owned the machine...I would think that would be more of a headache than the divorce itself. Unless the individuals had seperate/individual checking accounts or credit cards and it was purchased on one of those.

I gotta quit watching Law and Order...*walking away shaking head*

 

I wouldn't fight for custody of the kids. I would fight for custody of the computer.

 

This just takes dawgs reputation to a whole new level of idiocracy....

Anywho, I believe it is right to put spying software on a computer to watch what your kids are doing. I agree with you guys about the spying if you suspect your spouse of cheating, a cheaper PI in my opinion. Once the person is divorced, they should remove any software and spying activities from the computer or make their ex spouse aware of the software.

 

Seems to me that it would be illegal to do something like this, but maybe not since it's perceived as a public computer. I do agree it's a great thing to do for young kids or if you think someone's being unfaithful. It just proves what's going on and it's better than driving yourself crazy with speculation, worrying, and mindless accusations, or hiring an outside PI for a ton of money.

 

A friend of mine requested my help once with a cheating husband, so I installed and concealed a keylogger on his machine. I don't feel bad about it, to be honest.

Must have been embarrassing for him considering he was a self professed computer guru.

 

Not sure. Last I heard, he was in prison and they were divorced.

There was more to it than meets the eye, apparently, with a certain type of pornography...

 

I honestly don't see the difference between that and say taking pictures or phone messages. Where is the invasion of privacy where the union of two people is supposed to be as one.
AND - if one does something wrong the other is suspect also.

Even if one has a separate bank account it is still community property. Everything is while obtained during the marriage.

 

Laura: If it's in your house, you have a right to log everything you do. If you happen to "catch" something someone else does in the process.. oops...

I heard someone on the radio say one time that if you spy on someone, looking into things you're not supposed to (reading someones email) then you can't get mad at the person who was keeping it from you. My wife knows how to get into my email, she has the password. I don't care that she can, but she wouldn't question anything I did with my email, because she knows that it's not her place.

Darlene: A friend of mine was in a marriage that was leading to the end, he once left a phone book open intentionally to divorce lawyers in the yellow pages so that she would see it.

The next day he found the same phone book open to the psychiatrist page.. I guess what goes around comes around. LOL I always thought that was a good one. :cool

 

That is not my nature by any means. I was so submissive my children lost respect for me. As I said I endured abuse for 23 years (not that I'm proud of that) some physical mostly physiological. When fear turns to anger it's a scary thing.

 

Be proud of getting away instead then. After 23 years, most would not have been able to.

 

...because you were not supposed to be there in the first place?

I could probably get into The Guy's email if I wanted to, but I am of the opinion that the day I need to spy on him to get the truth from him, our marriage has far bigger problems than what might be found in an email. As for now, I have no reason to read his email, since he has never given me a reason not to trust him. We are working at keeping things that way

 

In California it goes like this. I am a Plaintiff in a Federal wiretapping (invasion of privacy) lawsuit that I recently won with my boyfriend and against his ex-wife. She had placed a keylogger on the computers at home used by her ex during a divorce. She was able to and did obtain the passwords for his financial institutions and his email that he remotely logged into and forwarded emails to herself that we were able to trace. She read and downloaded many emails between he and I. This is how she invaded my privacy. Of course, she and her boyfriend denied it and tried to say they were just concerned for the children but the judge saw it otherwise and in total we were awarded in excess of $100,000.00. You must post a notice of monitoring if you choose to put a keylogger on a computer that others use (with the exception of your children). Electronic spying is not legal, and you may be held liable if the individual decides to sue you civilly as I did.

So those of you who think it is OK to spy, take a second to think about it before you did. It can be a severe consequence that you end up facing for it.

 

This part is confusing to me. Did she break into his residence they being separated and living apart, or installed on a computer in their mutual residence while still living together?

 

I don't know of any law that says to do it is illegal, but I know that depending on how and who obtains the information (a person with a vendetta vs a law enforcement officer) than usually nothing they find is admissable in court. So if you are legally seperated, and have your ex's macine bugged and try to tell a judge he's cheating on you because you bugged his computer the judge will likely not give a damn.

But if you found something illegal by using a machine, and notified the authorities they would aquire a warrant to gather the rest of the information from the PC. What you found wouldn't matter, it would give them probable cause to search and seize and then whatever THEY found would be prosecuted.

 

I would think the laws differ form one state to another

 

I would hope so. The federal government has already usurped enough power from the states.

 

The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. 2511, which was enacted in 1986, guys, imposes criminal liability on one who “intentionally intercepts, endeavors to intercept, or procures any other person to intercept or endeavor to intercept, any wire, oral, or electronic communication." 49 states and the District of Columbia have statutes modelled after the federal statute.

The fact that you are married to someone does not give you the right to intercept communications such as, for example, your spouse's privileged communications with an attorney. Using keylogging software to capture a password that you do not otherwise know is, if you are in the United States, a violation of federal law and 98% likely to violate state law.

Do people really not know this?

 

No, because of something known as the "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine. The cops have ways of getting around this--potentially--but it's not as simple as you make it sound.

 

It's not as simple as you make it out to be. It goes further to a "reasonable expectation to privacy". It could be argued that in a joint custody situation with multiple users on the same computer, that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy thus a keylogger is not a strict violation of privacy laws. Also the target of the keylogger needs to be addressed. If I put a keylogger on my computer thinking about catching the baby sitter DLing music on my machine and I instead catch my wife caring on some sort of bizarre internet affair with some 13 year old kid in Texas then I might not be in the wrong totally.

If it was me, I would put a physical keylogger on a personal machine in a heartbeat and just never mention where certain information came from.

 

If I have a password and do not tell my spouse what that password IS, how do you argue that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in that password? The fact that the password is concealed is evidence that the password is expected to be private. It's another matter if the shared computer is set so that there is an automatic logon. But if there is an effort to protect the password, there is an expectation of privacy, and the law is violated if that password is captured.

And what do you mean it's not a "strict" violation of the law? Is there such a thing as a lenient violation?

 

yes, yes there most certainly is.

 

What you do is put the key logger on never mentioning it to anyone ,find out where the affair takes place remove the key logger then send in the PI to catch them. "EDIT Hypothetically speaking,if you were playing a catch the cheating spouse RPG."

Especially if you have given them a kidney 18 months prior:-D "EDIT in the RPG."

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1270368#post1270368

 

Briarbear41399: I am in a situation similar to what you described above. I would appreciate some additional information about your case so that my attorney can be more educated. Perhaps you can provide me with the case number and jurisdiction so that my attorney could do the research. Thank you.