Love Bytes
Advice from Digital Forensic Investigators
Valentine’s Day is an extremely popular day to celebrate your love with a proposal. An American Express survey found that 6 million couples are likely to get engaged on February 14th.
Before you pop open the champagne bottle and FaceTime your Mom, take a minute to discuss how you feel about having kids, where you will spend Thanksgiving as a couple and how you would handle Social Media and Device Access Preferences in your relationship and home.
In 2014, 25% of the cases we analyzed were divorce and infidelity based. In the initial case assessment we categorize the digital nature of the relationship prior to the breakdown, this gives us the information we need to establish online behavior regarding infidelity, banking and finances.
With this statistic in mind, my advice for newlyweds would be to set the ground rules for;
1. the SMOR or SMARR in the relationship.
2. the DAL in the home.
Are you both in favor of SMOR? Social Media Open Relationship or will you be a SMARR couple? Social Media Access Restricted Relationship.
• A SMOR couple has no secrets, they share passwords to each other’s social media accounts, and they can access each other’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram chats, SMS, MMS, images and timeline.
• A SMARR couple provides each other with limited or no access at all. Passwords are not shared and only public social media information is accessible. Each maintains his or her privacy.
We found that in infidelity cases, Facebook chat and Skype are often used to communicate. Undisclosed bank accounts are typically accessed via a cell phone web browser set to private, rather than a banking App.
3. Discuss setting the home environment rules regarding DAL (Device Access Level);
Would you agree to?
•DAL-FA Device Access Level – Full Access: to each other’s devices, no restrictions, access to cell phone iPad, laptop, shared Cloud, chats, SMS, MMS, videos and images on all devices.
•DAL-PA Device Access Level – Partial Access: to each other’s devices with some restrictions. Establish which device(s) belongs to whom and set password protection on the devices you wish to keep private. Deactivate shared from Cloud environment. Change your passwords frequently.
•DAL-RA Device Access Level – Restricted Access: to each other’s devices and no Cloud environment. If this is your preference as a couple, its best to use a different password for each device and to inform your service provider of your confidentiality requirement. Finally, make sure you set your devices to lock-out immediately when not in use.
<Sidebar> I would be like the “run-a-way bride” if I found out my future husband is a SMARR and DALRA. Just sayin’.
Finally discuss your vows, here’s an example;
“I, take you, to be my wedded partner, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish in SMOR and DALFA until death do us part”
<You may now kiss the bride and send #Selfie to Facebook>
Eliya Azoulay
Director/Case Management
Reg#R-071922
PI Lic#1498
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