Tech Snooping, in Domestic Disputes

choi

Steve Eder and Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, A Spy-Gear Arms Race Transforms Modern Divorce;
Wall Street Journal, Oct 6, 2012 (front page)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 02751421246848.html

Quote:

"Danny Lee Hormann suspected his wife was having an affair. So the 46-year-old Minnesota man installed spying software on his wife's cellphone and the family computer, and stuck a GPS device to her car * * * The sleuthing got Mr Hormann thrown in jail for 30 days, convicted of stalking his wife. * * * On appeal, a judge reversed the tracking charge, saying he had 'sufficient ownership interest' of the car [which is marrital property] and thus could legally track its whereabouts.

"In one 2011 Nebraska case, a mother who embedded a listening device in her daughter's teddy bear to record the girl's father was found guilty of violating the Federal Wiretap Act. And in a 2008 Iowa ruling, a court found that a man had violated his wife's privacy by taping her with a camera surreptitiously installed in an alarm clock in her bedroom in their home.

"All together, at least five of the 13 US circuit courts have found that the Federal Wiretap Act does prohibit surveillance within marriages. But at least two [one being the Fifth Circuit that encompasses Texas] that have ruled that the law doesn't prohibit recording your spouse.

"Occasionally, both husband and wife are spying on each other. In Oakland County, Mich, prosecutors charged Leon Walker under the state's antihacking statute after he read his wife's emails in a password-protected account on a shared computer. Then, this past July, they dropped the charge, claiming that his wife was snooping, too, by reading his text messages.

"Divorce and privacy laws vary nationwide, and it is far from settled whether evidence discovered this way would be admissible in a divorce proceeding. However, if the information is used to harass or intimidate someone, a person can face prosecution for stalking or related offenses. 'Stalking laws differ by state, but usually the main element is that there is fear' felt by the victim, said Cindy Southworth of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. Spouses using spying tools could also run afoul of wiretap, cybercrime or trespass laws, or they may expose themselves to civil suits.

"Beyond using tracking gadgets to try to catch cheaters or trace assets, Mr [TJ] Ward[, a private eye,] said his firm also offers clients counter-surveillance options to see if a spouse is spying on them. Sweeping a home for bugs costs roughly $5,000. A cellphone scan runs about $500.

My comment:
(a) Quotation 2 has: "In one 2011 Nebraska case, a mother who embedded a listening device in her daughter's teddy bear to record the girl's father was found guilty of violating the Federal Wiretap Act."

I presume that the spouses are separated.
(b) Quotation 3 mentions 13 circuits.

United States courts of appeals
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_court_of_appeals

(i) The 13 circuits are those (1-11) in the map, plus DC circuit and federal circuit. The latter (headquartered in Washington, DC and created in 1982) is a spcialized court of appeals, drawing appeals from federal district courts around the nation on patent laws.
(ii) The numbering followed expansion of United States to the West. That is why the Tenth Circuit is geographically in between the Eight and Ninth Circuits. The Eleventh Circuit was carved out of the Fifth Circuit in 1981.