Read your partner’s email without their knowledge, go to jail?

If you live in the US state of Michigan, read your partner’s emails without their knowledge, get caught doing so and are reported to the police, Michigan state law could see you spending up to 5 years in jail!

Although parents are advised to have full knowledge of their children’s passwords for social networking sites and email, the same is not a standard recommendation for relationship partners, whatever the official status of their relationship, usually for simple privacy reasons.

Source: www.itwire.com...

Five years jail for secretly reading your wife's emails?

That's espionage!!!

Husband facing five years in jail after hacking wife's email

What if as in my situation, my brother was my business partner and defrauded me then lost the business which we jointly owned.

What if he had left a trail of emails which proved his criminal intent to defraud me?

Are you suggesting that in seeking to obtain evidence of a crime that i should go to jail and he go scott free?

What of a spouse cheating on a marriage or hiding income?

Who is the real criminal and where is common sense in such an attitude?

And what would happen if the husband had read and reported emails his wife wrote of her planning a murder, or had already committed a murder? Would the hubby get arrested and go to jail also?

My Thunderbird email is open 24/7 on my computer and don't need a password to read. I have nothing to hide anyhow. Also, my hubby gave me all his passwords for his email accounts. He asks me to check his email all the time, especially if he is waiting on an important email.

So the lady was having an affair and got caught by her email. Rather than just losing her share in the divorce settlement she would rather have her future third ex-husband to go to prison because she got caught.

Sounds like he had probable cause to be snooping. Oh yeah, probable cause don't apply to regular people.

Would she still have an expectation of privacy in her email if she looked like a terrorist or was engaging in other suspicious behavior?

If I thought my spouse was willing to let me go to jail for something like that, then I'd be reconsidering my marriage anyway.

reply to post by ironfalcon


Is secrets in a marriage healthy for the marriage?

If such a law exists, what is the purpose?

Is the purpose of this law to keep the privacy of wife from husband and keep the privacy of husband from wife?

What is there to be gained from secrets between husbands and wives?

Regardless of the story behind the headlines (which is another issue all together, that being trust and deceit in a relationship) - I really don’t see what’s the big deal. You open someone else’s ‘snail’ mail - it’s a Federal Offence.
I believe the same should apply to email.

Sure, it’s easy to whine ‘But I’ve got nothing in my email that my partner couldn't read’ - Well all fine and good! So, open your email first then let your partner read them.

This whole ‘show and tell’ experience we’re being force fed (by media) and peer pressured into participating in (Face Book, MySpace, etc) is absolutely pathetic!

Hand in hand with the growing psychobabble trend being couples/families/workmates should have no personal privacy, and shouldn’t even expect any (!) is just another grooming technique perpetuated by TPTB to mould society’s collective mind into accepting and believing NOTHING personal is sacred anymore, and worse, that that’s a GOOD thing!

Makes a sane person want to puke.
Or it should.

That little lock on your diary folks? They’re there for a reason. NOTHING is more sacred than human thought - the pinnacle being PRIVATE human thought.

Read other people’s emails = Go to jail. Amen.

peace

reply to post by silo13


Hypocrisy in law

It would be hypocritical for this law to exist amongst the same laws which allows the US government to spy on American thoughts. We still haven't seen any governmental employees get sentenced to prison terms for reading the emails of American citizens.

(IMO) hypocrisy should be destroyed from all systems which exists in this world, the first step to freedom.

reply to post by sy.gunson


Fair enough to!

Are you suggesting that in seeking to obtain evidence of a crime that i should go to jail and he go scott free?

Straight out yes! That would be criminal behavior! Get the emails the legit way through court subpoena! I can hear you cry but but but but they could delete them or change them! Straight out tough! Do you think you are above the law?. We are not talking moral rights to do it we are talking legal! Yes, legally a big no no! Not saying the law is right but it must be followed!

Originally posted by lurkee
Is the purpose of this law to keep the privacy of wife from husband and keep the privacy of husband from wife?

What is there to be gained from secrets between husbands and wives?

I think it's a shame that so many people equate privacy with secrets. They are NOT the same thing and one does NOT indicate presence of the other. I don't know any of my husband's passwords and vice versa. It's about personal privacy.

I don't remember EVER saying something in an email that I wouldn't want my husband to read, but if he snooped around in my email without asking me, it would indicate a HUGE problem with respect and trust in our relationship. He wouldn't find anything incriminating, but his action would seriously shake our relationship.

I'm with silo on this one. If ANY person hacked into my email, I would be furious. Not because there are secrets there, but because it's private.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


I agree with you partially

I agree with you that there has to be trust within marriage.

I believe hypocrisy shouldn't be mixed with laws. If there are laws allowing the state to check your emails without any punishment, then a husband or a wife should also have the right, under the law, to check his/her partner's emails without any punishment.

There shouldn't be an exception.

Privacy VS Trust

A husband/wife wouldn't enter his/her partner's email without permission if there wasn't an issue of trust.
The relationship at that stage is already at risk. The government shoving its nose at personal affairs between a husband and a wife doesn't really help the issue (IMO).

Originally posted by lurkee
If there are laws allowing the state to check your emails

They can only do that with a warrant or court order. PC World

The government shoving its nose at personal affairs between a husband and a wife doesn't really help the issue (IMO).

It's one of the government's jobs to protect our privacy.

I agree with you that there is no doubt hypocrisy in there somewhere, but as far as protecting my basic rights, my husband is no different than any other citizen who would hack into my email. Our relationship shouldn't matter. He can't steal from me, kill me or rape me just because he's my husband. Why should he be allowed to violate my privacy?

Get the emails the legit way through court subpoena! I can hear you cry but but but but they could delete them or change them! Straight out tough! Do you think you are above the law?. We are not talking moral rights to do it we are talking legal! Yes, legally a big no no! Not saying the law is right but it must be followed!

This is so funny after our own government reads our emails everyday without any subpoena. The law must be followed? Tell that to the FBI and DHS. They are the worst violators of this.
wonkette.com...
www.eweek.com...
And this link talks about how the government is secretly reading your emails to keep you safe from terrorism.
www.pbs.org...

I think emails should be private, but I think that the ones who make the laws should be the first ones to OBEY the LAWS!!!

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic


They can only do that with a warrant or court order. PC World

Through the court = court breaching your privacy

I admire your courage to admit that there is hypocrisy somewhere in there.
I would like to add, that Bush created a law which doesn't need court ruling to spy on its citizens.

It's one of the government's jobs to protect our privacy.

Yes it is, but I'm simply saying the obvious

I will reiterate: When a husband/wife checks his/her partner's email without permission, the marriage is already in shaky grounds. There is obviously an issue of trust between the two.

If there is an issue of trust, (IMO) it would be better for the government to help the marriage, rather than destroy it. The unity of a family should be saved from any corrupt thoughts which creates mis-trust. The unity of a family is important for the well being of the future generations etc.

I agree with you that there is no doubt hypocrisy in there somewhere, but as far as protecting my basic rights, my husband is no different than any other citizen who would hack into my email. Our relationship shouldn't matter. He can't steal from me, kill me or rape me just because he's my husband. Why should he be allowed to violate my privacy?

I personally believe your husband is more than a random citizen. I personally believe that you and your husband is in a relationship, much deeper than the relationship you have with other random citizens, even with friends.

It all depends on perspective I suppose? That is the only conclusion I can derive from this discussion, that you personally have a strong feeling regarding privacy, even with the man which you have chosen to be your soul mate, to live with forever (sorry for the huge assumption).

Anyways, I would like to ask you one question:
Does your husband sometimes read your mails which comes to your mailbox?

I ask this, because my Mrs. isn't good with computers, but she does read my mail here and there, when I'm not home. I read her mails too, because I get that urge. We have made it obvious that it is OK, if it wasn't OK with me I would have told her the first time she did it, if it wasn't OK with her, she would have told me the first time I did it.

I guess the PTB dont want any compitition on snooping on us..........lol

This country has gone stark raving insane

They have been fighting over that for decades. Read about Herbert Yardley and his Black Chambers.

en.wikipedia.org...

They finally closed down MI 8 in 1929 and the Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson claimed

"Gentlemen do not read each other's mail."

What he should have done is installed a Keylogger onto his PC. Completely legal, and he would see everything she typed on the computer (emails, chat windows, etc..) without having to go into her actual e-mail.

He could have found out everything she was typing without having to break the law. It is completely legal to install a keylogger on your own computer. Now, if somebody doesn't know about it and types things that are potentially incriminating, oh well.

Privacy on a computer or the internet is a complete joke.

Originally posted by lurkee
reply to post by silo13

 

Hypocrisy in law

It would be hypocritical for this law to exist amongst the same laws which allows the US government to spy on American thoughts. We still haven't seen any governmental employees get sentenced to prison terms for reading the emails of American citizens.

(IMO) hypocrisy should be destroyed from all systems which exists in this world, the first step to freedom.

The government practices snooping on the emails of U.S. citizens because they believe they have the 'power and authority' to do so, under the misleading so-called Patriot Act.

No govt employees face the prospect of imprisonment for reading emails; same thing for the staff at Google. Their Gmail system reads emails on a routine basis.

Originally posted by lurkee
Anyways, I would like to ask you one question:
Does your husband sometimes read your mails which comes to your mailbox?

Only with my permission. Otherwise, if it's addressed to just me, he leaves it on my desk.

Yes just because the law is absolute we should respect it without question. If you don't believe in discretion you're nothing but a puppet of the government, just like they prefer you to be! Remember people (CEOs) like Richard Fuld and Angelo Mozilo, who each stole 600 million in fraud, and didn't even serve a DAY in prison? Yet you think this guy deserves to go to prison for 5 years for opening his own wifes email and catches her red-handed cheating like the bitch whore she is? I give this guy a full pardon. Here's my proposition: use some logic.