Most of us see nothing criminal in a situation where one of the spouses reads the other’s email or SMS messages. Jealous and insecure types periodically peeked into their spouses’ pockets centuries before computers and cell phones were invented.
However, this situation may drastically change in the US thanks to their precedent system and a trial taking place these days.
The wife of the defendant, 33-year-old Leon Walker, used her husband’s laptop. Apparently, it wasn’t hard for him to steal the password for her Gmail account. When the wife wasn’t home, Leon periodically read her mail.
When he discovered that she was going to go back to her ex-husband, they had a fight and he told her how he got this information.
The woman called the police and accused her husband of breaking into her email account. Despite their relationship, the prosecution insisted on 5 years for the husband for violating privacy laws. Lawyers estimate his chances of clearing himself of the charge as fairly low.
If Walker eventually gets convicted, an important precedent will be created that will be used by judges in similar cases in the future. And there can be a quite a few of them.
Tags: Information Security, Law, News, USA