Man gets 4 years in prison for spying on wife's email

[kurth]

Spying on lover's e-mail? Monitoring may be illegal
Austin police have charged two recently with activity.
By Tony Plohetski
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Shawn Macleod wanted to know where his estranged wife was going on the Internet and what she was writing in e-mails, investigators said, so he secretly installed a program called SpyRecon on her computer that sent him electronic logs with the sites she had visited and messages she had sent. His spying resulted in a four-year prison sentence.

Software programs created to monitor computer activity have grown in popularity in recent years as parents have sought ways to prevent children from accessing adult Web sites or e-mailing possible predators and as businesses have tried to curtail the time employees spend on the Internet when they are at work. Others, too, have found a use for the software: Scorned lovers can track where their spouses or partners go online, whom they are e-mailing and what they are saying — all possibly in violation of the law.

Austin police considered Macleod's actions tantamount to illegal wiretapping and charged him with unlawful interception of electronic communication, a second-degree felony that can carry a 20-year sentence. Macleod pleaded guilty in May. "It's pretty alarming," said Macleod's attorney, Johnny Urrutia. Urrutia said he would be surprised if his client knew that what he was doing was against the law.

Doug Fowler, president of SpectorSoft Corp., which manufactures an Internet monitoring program called eBlaster, said law enforcement agencies nationwide have in recent months sought company records during criminal investigations, hoping the documents would show who installed the software on victims' computers...

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/11/13/1113spy.html

[aquart]

1. Yet George walks free for reading mine.

And we're not even dating.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. Amen to that!

[AuntPatsy]

4. What a perfect response to the op, I couldn't have said it better.

"When will we stop the shredding or our legal system where it is okay for political leaders but criminal for the average citizen, this person should sue the legal system, its a proven failure.

[Richard Steele]

6. I can't put it any better. nm

[rurallib]

7. But you are being screwed.

[aquart]

31. Eeeeewww!

[awoke_in_2003]

10. Can't remember the exact quote

but to paraphrase Jefferson, tyranny is that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizen.

[malaise]

26. Amazing isn't it n/t

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

2. Why is it the little guy always gets busted and put behind bars when

corps like at&t don't even get their wrist slapped?

[Blashyrkh]

8. Little guy can't argue "National Security"; the largest bullshit phrase in modern history.

[Selatius]

5. OK, so I can go to prison for spying on 1 email account but not several million???

Are we rewarding who can violate the most privacy here? What happened to consistency and the idea that no man is above the law?

[Matariki]

30. there's a parallel here to murder also -

murder one person go to prison for life, mass murder hundreds of thousands and be hailed as 'the war president'.

[ecstatic]

9. Unfair sentence

No jail time should have been involved. He does sound like a stalker though.

[rhett o rick]

11. Forgive me but Texas sounds like a different country. nm

[ladjf]

12. I would never want to live in a state that is the execution leader

in the Country.

[DFW]

18. Not really.

Besides, we rent out Oklahoma for picnics. Boosts their economy like you wouldn't believe.

[Ezlivin]

20. It is...and they have the license plates to prove it

http://www.traveltex.com/products/LicensePlateFAQ.aspx

[rhett o rick]

35. I didn't know about that when I wrote the response. nm

[formercia]

13. Government contractors might be liable

for monitoring targets for the government without court approval.

[Scriptor Ignotus]

14. am I the only one who thinks what he did was wrong

and kind of creepy?

[Marrah_G]

15. Nope, so do I

It's showing stalker behavior and frankly I would be afraid of someone like that.

[magellan]

16. It's wrong and VERY creepy IMO

And no different than what our government does to us all every day.

[ceile]

17. I think it was wrong

But I think stalking should have been added to his sentence.

[Toasterlad]

34. Yes, It Was Wrong, But Without Knowing More About Their Relationship...

...I can't agree that it was worth four years in prison.

[Beerboy]

19. Huh.

Spying and wire-tapping cemented w/ legitimacy by judicial decisions. Then again, he's just some white guy committing a hate crime, who's to say? If the court didn't note Mr. Macleod's race, it should be safe to assume that the government should eavesdrop on all known white males in the interest of up-holding public safety and preventing hate-crimes.
I'm OK w/ it.

[Quantess]

21. Double Standard. It's fine for the Government

but illegal for an estranged spouse.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

22. If you share a computer, but are suspicious the partner is playing around

I don't see how that can translate into a crime.

On the other hand, if you're separated, that seems like overstepping the law. You have no business snooping around if the person made it clear the relationship is over.

[Blue_Tires]

23. ttt

crazy

[Ravy]

24. I un-erased my wife's (at the time) IRC chat logs.

I was suspicious, and found out she was making plans on moving in with another guy a few states away. We were living in the same house and had never discussed separation or divorce previous to that.

I am not the least bit sorry.

[leftofthedial]

25. lots of spouses spy on their SO's computers

it's a whole frigging industry

[gollygee]

27. First of all, she was his *estranged* wife, which means they weren't still together

and that is frightening stalker behavior.

[tammywammy]

28. Agreed, very scary

:scared:

[Lance_Boyle]

29. He should've hired a PI

They do this stuff all the time, including the keylogging and the physical stalking. So why is it illegal for an estranged husband, but not for the PI? Is Texas justice protecting the PI racket?

Also, if he was paying the ISP bill every month, he may have had a perfectly legit right to know what traffic was moving in and out over the account for which he was responsible. What if she'd been plotting terrist activity, or (GASP!) unlawfully downloading and sharing COPYRIGHTED MATERIALS?!? People need to know what's in their tubes if they can be held legally accountable.

Appetizers for thought.

[treestar]

32. He's not necessarily a stalker

In a divorce, there's an element of surprise that he may have been trying to avoid. Like plans to clean out the checking account. Adultery, which in some states could have legal significance. I'm not sure he has to be a stalker. There oculd be other explanations. All you'd have to do is change the password. Do these programs get around that?

How to determine when a private citizen is doing an "illegal wiretap." Pretty interesting questions.

There's probably an IT solution of some kind, sort of like firewalls and anti-virus programs. Then what would the Chimpadministration want, to make it illegal?

[Oeditpus Rex]

33. Proposed new state motto for Texas:

"Shit, y'all ain't seen irony yet."

[DCKit]

36. K&R for the comments. You guys are funny!!