First let me give you a quick background of where this question is coming from. We have a  local radio station here that does this thing they call "War of the Roses." Basically, the idea is that they have a couple in a relationship (whether dating or married) where one of them believes the other is cheating. So the radio station calls the suspected cheater up on the phone and asks them where they want to send a dozen roses. Then they obviously either send it to their partner, or to the person their cheating with.

Well, apparently they've reached a new level with this idea. I'm driving to work this morning listening to the show, and they say that they've installed spy monitoring software onto a computer in order to watch the activities of the suspected cheater. It sounds like it works the same as most, and logs Internet activity, chats, emails, takes screenshots, etc.

My question of the whole thing would be the legal issues involved. Since they're monitoring activity as a third party, what permission do they need? Do they only need permission from the 1 person in the couple to spy on the other? Do you need a Private Investigator license or anything?

True enough, I think pseud0's take on it is legal.  I've installed spy software for clients before at their request on their own computers, and taught them how to monitor the results... I must say I kind of felt dirty though doing it even though it was technically totally fine.  I don't know, I'm not a big fan of the feel of being a cog in the Orwellian machine, but then again it does pay and it's technically ethical in my case.  Still, it does have a dirty feel, especially when you have to watch the person it takes down realize that their privacy has been violated, even if done so with good reasons.

Thanks for the replies. That makes sense. I guess when I was thinking about it this morning, it was more from the perspective of breaking into a computer and placing monitoring software on it (which would obviously be illegal). If 1 of them gives permission to do so, I guess it's the same as that person installing it themselves to monitor the other anyway. I had not taken into consideration civil liability though, good point.

edit: What about leaking of confidential information? Is all data fair game? Say for example the person opens work email or connects to a work system and now confidential company data has been breached. What then?

Ok, fair enough. Thanks for the replies and info

At first looking at this I thought they might be breaking Federal Wire Tap laws.  But after further investigation  http://www.securityfocus.com/news/9978 I found that the wiretap law was thrown out by this judge in a keylogger ruling. 

So next would come down to ownership and who owned the system and provided access to it.  If it is a non-martial relationship and the girlfriend granted access to the computer that belonged to the boyfriend I believe that then there would be laws being broken.

Various user accounts would not make a difference. So long as the spy ware is installed by an account with admin privileges, then it would run no matter what account is being used. As for the legality of the whole thing, it is perfectly acceptable for parents to use programs to monitor their kids’ activities. Should it be any different for spouses? Of course, this brings up the whole issue of trust on the part of the couple, but that is a different argument. Go ahead and spy on your spouse all you want, but be prepared for the consequences when he or she finds out.