SALT LAKE CITY — Internet crimes are relatively new and still largely undefined in the legal world. But statutes designed to protect company trade secrets, identity theft or other information fraud, may also apply to people who discover something about you from an e-mail someone was not necessarily authorized to access.
“We’ve entered a whole different world where all kinds of damage and harm can be done electronically without ever stealing information,” University of Utah law professor Wayne McCormack said Tuesday. He said the questions surrounding privacy are more vague when it comes to the Internet.
Further interpretation of the law will likely come with the case of a Michigan man who is charged with felony computer misuse for accessing his wife’s e-mail account while she was allegedly carrying on an affair. A February trial date has been set for Leon Walker, 33, who faces up to five years in prison if he is convicted on the charge that is intended to nab hackers or others who use the Internet to defraud or otherwise cause harm.
McCormack said that the way the federal statute is written, “it is illegal to obtain information about a spouse that the spouse hasn’t authorized you to have.”
Walker claims he was concerned about his daughter’s welfare when he suspected his wife was having an affair with an abusive person. After she had already filed for divorce, he used her password to access her account on the couple’s shared computer. Information discovered within her account, didn’t come out until the divorce was heard in court and a battle for custody of their child ensued, according to Walker, who has gone public with the details of his case.
Prosecutors in Michigan don’t buy his story and are charging Walker with unauthorized access to a computer in order to “acquire, alter, damage, delete or destroy property,” according to NBC News. According to the report, Walker’s attorney plans to argue the statute is not applicable to “domestic snooping.”
“We are just now getting into this world of cyber crime,” McCormack said. “We are just now beginning to understand what it can do.”
He said that applying current laws to everyone in a personal relationship who allegedly sees a text or e-mail would have far-reaching implications and mean a lot more court time. Ultimately, he said, a person would have to prove injury due to information obtained.
“People have to start thinking about this question of privacy,” he said.
E-mail: wleonard@desnews.com
Article source: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705363575/Cyber-snooping-may-land-a-person-in-federal-prison.html?s_cid=rss-30
Category: Prison Time