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How can I protect myself against unwanted intrusions into my electronic privacy?

One of the impacts of technology that we have seen in divorce cases over the past few years has been an increase in issues related to privacy and using technology to spy on one another. It is disturbing and frustrating to find out that your spouse has been trying to gain information about you without your permission. Not only does this have an impact on your marriage, but it can potentially impact a divorce case as well. I want to spend today’s blog post discussing how house buying can impact your life and divorce. Additionally, I will provide you with some information about protecting yourself against spying.

When you get into a situation where trust has broken down between you and your spouse, this could be the signal to end your marriage not being far off. Several issues could have but you this breakdown in trust, but usually, these issues occurred over a long period, and it wasn’t just one specific incident that led to Rupture and trust between you and your spouse. Whatever the cause was, once you and your spouse begin to consider a divorce, it usually means that this lack of trust has been festering in your relationship for some time.

The lack of trust can also lead to a situation where you and your spouse begin to have problems maintaining appropriate boundaries with one another. Boundaries in a relationship Two people to engage with one another appropriately. A lack of boundaries means that one or both of you could have problems harming one another physically or emotionally in various ways. When we talk about boundaries, it comes down to a fundamental lack of respect for others. You believe that you once are in desires are more important than your spouses and vice versa. This is a recipe for disaster in a marriage.

Spying in a marriage is difficult sometimes to identify because, in a well-functioning marriage, there are some blurred lines between information that your spouse should have access to information that your spouse should not have access to without your permission. Spouses in a functioning marriage can communicate with one another about this type of information effectively. Whereas spouses in failing marriages tend to be unable to communicate with one another and have difficulty identifying those circumstances in which they may be overstepping the line when it comes to issues related to boundaries and trust. Sometimes counseling and therapy can help you, and your spouse gets back on track, but other times you may find that your marriage is beyond the point where counseling and therapy can help you.

In the old days, spying would be something that could either be done very expensively or had to be intricate. Hiding in another room while your spouse had a phone call would be an example of essential spying that most of us will be familiar with. On the other hand, it could take much effort to conduct electronic spying. However, given the advancement of technology in various areas nowadays, we see that spying occurs with more regularity and greater ease. Naturally, when it comes to people trying to gain an advantage in a divorce, spying has taken on greater significance and occurs more frequently in divorces as a result.

There are two circumstances where I think spotting occurs most frequently about divorces. The first is regarding simply wanting to obtain evidence for a divorce. For example, if you have long suspected your spouse of having an affair but have no direct proof of it, you may seek to tap the home phone line or access their emails or cell phone records. People in this position probably don’t pay too much attention to whether the information they obtain will be admissible in court. However, they want the information, and we’ll ask questions about how it was obtained later on.

The other circumstance in which spying tends to occur about divorces is your children. Children’s issues in custody tend to be highly contested topics in some divorces. Trying to gain an advantage in custody could mean blurring the lines between improperly and adequately obtaining evidence. Putting listening devices into the overnight bags of your children or even asking your children to place things in the home of your spouse are all examples of how spying can occur in a divorce scenario involving children.

This isn’t even to mention the amount of technology surrounding cell phones and home computers in today’s world. Imagine receiving a call on your cell phone that a spouse can intercept with boundary issues. Even if the contents of the conversation are not especially sensitive, it is still an unsettling proposition to have someone over here private communications. This means that your spouse can overhear conversations between you and your family or you and your attorney. This technology is available for a small price.

Even technology like GPS trackers or hardware that can be secured to your vehicle to track your movements would not be out of the question. These are Unfortunate realities for many people going through a divorce. If your spouse is dishonest enough to spy on you, they are likely dishonest enough to try and utilize this evidence in a divorce case. Before we get into how you can protect yourself from being spied on and having that information utilized in a divorce, I would like to talk to you more about how the state of Texas treats circumstances involving spying about divorce cases.

Protections under the law regarding spying

As a citizen of Texas, you and I have certain protections against different invasions of privacy. There is a right to privacy under Texas law. This includes protection against a person intruding upon your space wall alone as well as disclosing publicly private information about you. There are also laws against physical invasion of your property or eavesdropping on your conversations utilizing microphones or other methods. These are the basic protections that you have as a citizen of Texas.

The Texas Court of Appeals has held that even spouses expect privacy when dealing with one another. For example, let’s say that your spouse or someone your spouse hired secretly recorded a conversation between you and another person without your knowledge. If you were alone in the room and believed that you had complete privacy with yourself, then this is a crucial distinction to make. If your spouse were to violate your privacy and record a conversation, then this would be an exceptionally violent action for your spouse to take. You could assert this spying as a marital tort within your divorce and possibly be compensated for having done so.

Only smartphones count as computers under state criminal laws. This is important given that the Texas Penal Code states that a person commits I’m the fence by knowingly accessing a computer without the owner’s effective consent. This means that if your spouse is recording conversations off your phone or listening to your conversations, they violate state criminal law on spying.

The bottom line is that it is a bad idea to spy on your spouse. Not only could you be breaking the law to obtain information, but it is questionable as to whether the information you obtain can even be utilized in a courtroom. What this means is that all the trouble you went through to spy on your spouse or get information that way probably would not be permissible. You also would open yourself up to Criminal viability for attempting to spy on a spouse in this way. Think carefully about obtaining the evidence you plan to utilize in court and talk to your attorney if it is potentially admissible.

How to protect yourself against spying from your spouse before enduring a divorce

When it comes to issues related to spying, there are fortunately several things you can do to protect yourself from the threats we have discussed so far in today’s blog post. Let’s walk through some of the best methods that I am aware of when it comes to Avoiding having information obtained by your spouse without your permission. Fortunately, these methods can be implemented quickly and do not require much planning. However, you need to be aware of these methods before implementing them. For the remainder of today’s blog posts, we will walk through these tips so that you can utilize them in your own life.

When it comes to electronic spying, I think the method that most people are most familiar with would be hacking into emails. This means that all emails you send could be compromised and accessed by your spouse. To avoid this from occurring to you, you can employ a few different methods to help protect your electronic security. As you will see, these tips are not very intricate and are primitive.

The first would be to update your email account password regularly. The password you use for your email should not be the same password that you use for any other account or online website. This not only makes sense for spying from your spouse but also makes sense when it comes to your overall online security. Do not put yourself in a position where your digital self and security are compromised. Instead, taking the advice 2 change your password is something simple and easy that you can accomplish.

Changing your password, it’s not the only step you can take to protect yourself from spying. You should regularly inspect the area immediately around your home computer to determine if listening devices or other microphones are set up to record your actions by the computer. Simply being aware of the surroundings that you exist in can go a long way towards helping you avoid problems related to spying in your marriage.

Next, I like to point people towards being aware of your bank account and the money going in and out of your account. If your spouse suspects you of cheating on them, they may be attempting to access your checking account two see how you are spending your money. This can be a problem when you and your Spells do not share hey checking account. It is difficult to hide anything from your spouse regarding your finances when you share checking in savings accounts. You are asking for problems when you have separate accounts. This naturally invites curiosity at what your spouse is doing with their money when you do not share checking accounts.

By the way, this would be a good time for me to mention the advantages of sharing checking and savings accounts with your spouse. I do not think that we’ll immediately solve any issues with trust in your relationship by doing so. However, if you can work with your spouse to regain trust, you would be able to succeed from sharing the same account. It is more difficult to keep secrets from one another in generally helps when you and your spouse have shared goals. Sharing an account necessarily means that the two of you are also sharing your financial goals in a shared vision of your future.

Another way to increase trust and decrease the likelihood of spying in your life is to budget with your spouse. At this point, you may be wondering how budgeting could have any relationship with spying on trust in a marriage. The reality of the situation is that Budgeting forces you and your spouse to come to terms with what you agree on regarding household spending. Not only are you talking about your finances, but you are open to one another about your most significant concerns in your lives otherwise.

Next, when spying on phone calls, you can check your online statement from your cell phone provider to see if any unusual changes have been made in your account or if it looks like anyone has been trying to access your information. Sometimes cell phone providers will even allow you to look at the cell phone history of other numbers on your plan. You can keep an eye on this type of information to see if anyone has accessed your account previously. Doing so will help ease any concerns you have over spying while at the same time assisting you and your spouse in rebuilding any lost trust there may have been in your marriage period.

If you are already going through a divorce and need information, then some alternatives exist that would allow you to do so without breaking the law or violating your spouse’s trust. For one, temporary orders typically point out that obtaining information like this violates state law and the temporary orders of your case. Not only that, but information obtained illegally is inadmissible in terms of becoming evidence in your case. So, you could go through a lot of trouble to obtain this information only to find that you cannot even use it in a hearing or a trial.

The preferable route for you to take when it comes to obtaining evidence or documents in a divorce or any other family law matter is regarding discovery. You can work with your experienced family law attorney to submit discovery requests upon your spouse that would allow you to obtain responses to essential questions, documents, and other information without having to resort to spying or breaking the law to do so. Discovery is the process whereby you can obtain information by simply asking for it from your spouse. There are specific rules for discovery, and that is why you should always have an attorney available to assist you with this process. This will allow you to minimize disruptions to your case and be prepared to utilize the evidence you obtained most advantageously for you and your family.

Questions about the material contained in today’s blog post? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan

If you have any questions about the material contained in today’s blog post, please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our licensed family law attorneys offer free of charge consultation six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video. These consultations are an excellent way for you to learn more about the world of Texas family law and how your family circumstances may be impacted by the filing of a divorce or child custody case. I appreciate your interest in our law practice. We hope that you will join us again tomorrow as we continue to share relevant and interesting information about the world of Texas family law.

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