You can sue your spouse for invasion of privacy, and depending on what they did, you may also be able to have them criminally prosecuted. Federal wiretap and computer laws, along with common-law privacy torts recognized in most states, apply between spouses just as they do between strangers. Marriage lowers the expectation of privacy inside a shared home somewhat, but it does not erase it, and courts have consistently rejected the argument that a wedding ring is a license to read someone’s email, record their calls, or plant spyware on their phone.
What Counts as Invasion of Privacy Between Spouses
The claims that come up most often in marriages fall into a handful of predictable categories. Recording phone calls without consent. Installing monitoring software or “stalkerware” on the other spouse’s device. Logging into email, social media, or cloud accounts without permission. Reading stored text messages. Hiding cameras or audio recorders in private spaces. Publicly sharing intimate photos, medical information, or financial details to embarrass or damage the other spouse.
Each of these can support a lawsuit, and often more than one legal theory applies to the same conduct. A spouse who installs spyware to capture live text messages may be violating the federal Wiretap Act, the Stored Communications Act, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act at the same time, while also committing the tort of intrusion upon seclusion under state law. Stacking claims is normal in these cases and helps maximize recovery.
The Federal Statutes You Can Sue Under
Three federal laws do most of the work in spousal privacy cases, and all three give you a private right to sue for damages.
The Federal Wiretap Act
The Wiretap Act makes it a crime to intentionally intercept wire, oral, or electronic communications. “Intercept” means capturing something during transmission: recording a live phone call, using software to grab text messages as they are sent, eavesdropping on a conversation in progress. Federal courts have refused to read an interspousal exception into the statute. Criminal exposure runs up to five years in prison.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 2511 – Interception and Disclosure of Wire, Oral, or Electronic Communications Prohibited
On the civil side, you can recover actual damages plus any profits the violator made, or statutory damages of $100 per day of violation or $10,000, whichever is greater. Punitive damages, attorney fees, and litigation costs are also available.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 2520 – Recovery of Civil Damages Authorized Those statutory minimums matter because emotional harm from surveillance is real but hard to price, and the statute guarantees a meaningful recovery even when the dollar value of the harm is unclear.
The Stored Communications Act
Where the Wiretap Act covers communications in transit, the Stored Communications Act covers communications sitting in storage. If your spouse logs into your email, reads saved messages, or accesses your social media account without authorization, this is the statute that typically applies. It prohibits intentionally accessing a facility that provides electronic communication services without authorization, or exceeding whatever authorization was given.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 2701 – Unlawful Access to Stored Communications
Criminal penalties depend on purpose. Access for commercial advantage or to cause damage carries up to five years for a first offense and up to ten years for a repeat. Other violations carry up to one year for a first offense.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 2701 – Unlawful Access to Stored Communications Civilly, the SCA guarantees a minimum recovery of $1,000 for any aggrieved person, with punitive damages available for willful violations and attorney fees and costs at the court’s discretion.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 2707 – Civil Action
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
The CFAA targets unauthorized access to protected computers, which under the statute includes essentially any device connected to the internet. A spouse who guesses or resets a password to get into the other’s phone, laptop, or online account may be violating this law. First-offense penalties reach one year in prison, jumping to five years if the access furthered another wrongful act or if the value of the information obtained exceeds $5,000.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1030 – Fraud and Related Activity in Connection with Computers The CFAA also provides a civil cause of action, so you can sue for damages independently of any prosecution.
The pivotal question in most spousal CFAA cases is whether the access was really unauthorized. If both spouses knew the password to a shared device and neither had restricted access, courts often find access was authorized. Logging in after a spouse changed the password, or using credentials they never agreed to share, points the other way.
State Privacy Torts
Alongside the federal statutes, every state recognizes some version of the common-law privacy torts, though not every state recognizes all of them. Two matter most in spousal disputes.
Intrusion upon seclusion is the one that fits most cases. It covers any deliberate invasion of your private affairs that a reasonable person would find highly offensive: hidden recorders, spyware, opened mail, covert surveillance. You do not have to show anyone else saw the information. The intrusion itself is the harm. Remedies include compensation for emotional distress and, where the conduct was extreme, punitive damages.
The battleground is usually the reasonable expectation of privacy. That expectation is lower between spouses sharing a home than between strangers, but it is not zero. A spouse who glances at a message that pops up on a shared tablet is in different territory than one who installed keystroke-logging software. Password protection on an account, even on a shared device, signals that access was not open.
Public disclosure of private facts applies when a spouse broadcasts truthful but private information: intimate photos posted online, medical records shared with friends and family, financial details published to embarrass. The information has to be genuinely private, and the disclosure broad enough to count as public rather than a remark to one person.
Two other torts sometimes appear. False light claims target misleading portrayals that cause emotional harm rather than reputational damage; not every state recognizes them as separate from defamation.6Legal Information Institute. False Light Appropriation of name or likeness covers the unauthorized use of your identity for someone else’s benefit, usually commercial, and rarely fits a spousal dispute unless a business is involved.
Can Your Spouse Still Use What They Found in the Divorce?
This is the part people find hardest to accept. Your spouse can be criminally liable and civilly liable for how they got the information, and still be allowed to use some of it against you.
Federal law bars illegally intercepted wire or oral communications from being used as evidence in any court proceeding.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 2515 – Prohibition of Use as Evidence of Intercepted Wire or Oral Communications Illegally recorded phone calls fall squarely within this exclusion. Notice what is missing: the statute names wire and oral communications, not electronic ones. Emails and text messages illegally obtained do not automatically get excluded under federal law, even though obtaining them was still a crime.
The traditional common-law rule in civil cases is that relevant evidence comes in regardless of how it was obtained, unless a specific statute excludes it. Some states have enacted their own exclusionary rules covering electronic communications. Others admit the evidence, particularly when child custody is in play. Family courts weighing a child’s best interests have consistently been reluctant to exclude relevant evidence about a parent’s fitness, even when it was gathered illegally.
The constitutional exclusionary rule that keeps illegally seized evidence out of criminal trials does not apply here, because it only restrains the government. A private individual, including your spouse, is not covered.8LII / Legal Information Institute. Exclusionary Rule
The takeaway: whether the evidence gets in depends on the type of communication, the state you live in, and whether children are involved. Your civil claim for the privacy violation is a separate proceeding, and winning it does not automatically erase the evidence from the divorce case.
Defenses Your Spouse Will Raise
Consent is the defense you should expect, and the one most cases turn on. If you gave your spouse the password, told them to check your phone, or agreed to shared monitoring, they will argue you cannot now claim a privacy invasion. Proving what was said between spouses years ago is rarely clean, and courts scrutinize whether the actual access exceeded what a reasonable spouse would have expected. A shared family computer does not mean both spouses consented to having each other’s individual, password-protected accounts searched.
Other defenses that sometimes apply:
- Legitimate public interest, in public disclosure cases where the information genuinely concerns the public. This rarely fits purely private spousal disputes.
- Truth, specifically against a false light claim. Factually accurate statements cannot cast someone in false light, though arranging true facts to create a misleading impression can still create liability.
- Necessity, where a spouse acted out of genuine safety concern such as evidence of child abuse or imminent threat. Courts read necessity narrowly: it requires that the conduct was the lesser of two harms, that no reasonable alternative existed, and that a reasonable person would have acted the same way. Vague suspicion does not qualify.9LII / Legal Information Institute. Necessity Defense
How State Law Changes the Answer
Two state-law variables matter most.
Recording consent rules. A majority of states follow a one-party consent rule, meaning you can legally record a conversation you are part of without telling the other person. A smaller group of states require all parties to consent, and in those states recording your spouse’s phone call without their knowledge is itself a crime, even if you are on the line. Which rule applies in your state can decide whether a recording is evidence or a felony.
Statute of limitations. The deadline for filing a privacy claim typically runs between two and five years from the date you discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, the violation. Miss it and the claim is gone regardless of the merits. If you suspect ongoing monitoring, talking to an attorney before the clock runs is worth doing even if you have not decided whether to sue.
States also differ in which privacy torts they recognize and in the elements required to prove them. Some offer broader statutory protections than federal law; others rely almost entirely on common law. Because the strength of your claim depends heavily on where you live, local legal advice is essential.
When Surveillance Becomes a Safety Issue
Consumer monitoring apps sold as parental tools can be repurposed to track a spouse’s location, read messages, log keystrokes, and even activate a phone’s camera or microphone with no visible sign on the device. Using them against a spouse without consent can violate the Wiretap Act, the Stored Communications Act, and the CFAA at once.
When surveillance is part of a pattern of monitoring, control, or intimidation, it can also trigger stalking and harassment statutes. Every state has stalking laws, and many now cover GPS tracking, spyware, and persistent digital monitoring. Protective orders can include specific provisions barring the use of technology to monitor or contact you. If you feel unsafe, the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233) and local legal aid offices are concrete places to start.
What to Do If You Think Your Spouse Has Been Watching You
Preserve what you have before doing anything else. Screenshots, device logs, unfamiliar apps, unexplained battery drain, records of account logins from locations you were not in. Do not tip off your spouse or try to remove monitoring software on your own if you may need forensic evidence later; a specialist can document what was installed and when.
Talk to a family law attorney in your state, and ask specifically about both the divorce implications and a separate civil claim under the Wiretap Act, the SCA, the CFAA, and applicable state torts. The statutory damages available under federal law, particularly the $10,000 floor under the Wiretap Act and the $1,000 floor under the SCA, mean these cases can be worth bringing even when actual monetary harm is difficult to prove.