Accessing without authorization on the phone of the former spouse, also to collect evidence to be used in a cause of separation, constitutes abusive access to the IT system and can lead to a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. This was established by the Cassation, who rejected the appeal of a man sentenced by the Court of Appeal of Messina for having picked up WhatsApp chats and records of calls from the phones of his ex -wife, without his consent. The messenger writes today.
The man had extracted the data from two cell phones – one of whom still in use to the woman, the other used for work and disappeared for some time – and had delivered them to his lawyer to produce them as proof in court, in order to obtain the charge of the separation.
The complaints date back to March 2022 and March 2023, when the woman reported harassing and obsessive conduct from her husband, also accusing him of having sent private messages to third parties (including his parents) to insinuate the existence of a relationship with a colleague.
According to the Cassation, the messages and calls contained in the devices are protected as part of the person’s private and reserved sphere. Applications such as WhatsApp also specify the judges, they must be considered in all respects IT systems, as software that process and transmit data through digital networks.
For the Court of Cassation there is no doubt that the man has “arbitrarily invaded the wife’s confidentiality sphere of confidentiality through the intrusion in an application system” which should be reserved for the owner of the vehicle only, if not with his consent to make you access other people. The temporary consent to the use of the phone does not eliminate the criminal liability if the limit set by the owner of the device is exceeded. In other words, even if a person grants access to a short period or It maintains access or consult unauthorized data, however, commits a crime.