37% of Married People Say They Have Digitally Snooped On Their Spouses

"You have nothing to fear but fear itself," according to President Franklin Roosevelt. But he died over 65 years ago and did not have a PDA or Facebook account. With all the uproar over digital phone hacking by reporters, it turns out that the greatest odds of being snooped upon come from your spouse, your significant other or your parents.

Given what we have learned from the stories of celebrities like Tiger Woods, this behavior is unsurprising - except that the scale is impressive. A little simple math suggests that with a divorce rate of approximately 50%, a snoop rate of only 37% seems like it might be an endorsement of the marital institution's prospects. Time to go long on marriage-benefitted businesses like housewares, microwaveable pizza and lingerie. JL

Sarah Kessler reports in Mashable:

Targeted online advertising has left many people slightly creeped out by the many ways strangers collect their online data. But a new study suggests that strangers aren’t the only people who are likely to collect personal information without your notice.

The study, which surveyed more than 1,000 online individuals, found that the percentage of significant others, spouses and parents who admit to digital snooping is significant and — at least among romantic partners — on the rise. It was commissioned by consumer electronics search engine and review site Retrevo.
About 33% of respondents admitted to checking a significant other’s email or call history without their partner’s knowledge at least once. Married couples were even more likely to snoop, with 37% of married respondents admitting the same.

Parents, however, were the worst online snoopers. Thirty-nine percent of mothers and 36% of fathers said they had done some digital snooping (across the board, women were more likely to admit to snooping than men). The majority of parents, 59%, also said that tracking their children’s location with a cell phone service or other device wouldn’t be a problem.

“Consumers may have just as much to fear from people they know than big corporations,” reads the study’s conclusion