Technology (iphones, etc)

When couples are married, it can be harder to prove that tracking a spouse’s car or accessing their phone with spyware is illegal because the courts often consider Ppurchased during a marriage to be “marital property.” [THIS INFO IS RE: TEXAS ONLY - IF YOU ARE WRITING ABOUT TEXAS, EDIT THIS TEXT AS PER THE USER’S SITUATION. FOR OTHER STATES, PLEASE LOOK ON OUR CRIMES PAGE FOR CRIMES REGARDING SPYWARE OR GPS DEVICES, ETC. AND LET THE USER KNOW THAT THESE CRIMES EXIST AND LINK TO THEM. This article on the Texas Bar Association’s website refers to two cases where a husband put a tracker on the wife’s vehicle but the court said it wasn’t illegal. However, the same article refers to a case where a husband accessed his wife’s phone and that was considered illegal. The phone was considered to be a “computer” and therefore, it violated this law against Breach of computer security.] Hopefully the police may consider the acts of your spouse to be illegal but since it can be complicated, you may want to get an advocate or attorney [HYPERLINK] to approach the police with you.

When these sort of cases get to court, a key factor has often been if there could be a reasonable expectation of privacy on the device or car, even within the context of the relationship. Some courts in different states have found that there was still an expectation of privacy so a spouse couldn’t videotape the survivor in their shared home, track the vehicle they co-own but that is primary used by the survivor, or monitor their tech without consent. Other cases have gone the other way assuming that shared access was obvious so there shouldn’t have been an expectation of privacy. 

However, regardless of whether the police believe a crime has been committed, it’s often possible to include prohibitions against acts like these in a protective order. A person who files for one can specifically ask in the petition that the judge includes “no electronic monitoring or tracking or devices or vehicles” in the petition, for example. This way, if the respondent violates it, the police have a clear path to make an arrest for violating a protection order. We link to information about protective orders [HYPERLINK] on our website if you are considering filing for one. A protective order can also remove an abusive spouse from the home, allowing the victim to remain.

If you are thinking of reporting your spouse to the police, you’d probably want to first think through a plan to stay safe. We link to local domestic violence organizations  [HYPERLINK] that offer free services if you want to connect with an advocate there for help. We also have safety tips on our website that you can review as well.