By Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter
An increasing number of people are secretly investigating their spouses, which often becomes a key reason for conflicts among married couples.
Early this year, a 37-year-old office worker Lee installed a ``spy program'' on his home computer without informing his wife.
As a result of the spy program, whatever his wife typed would automatically appear on Lee's computer screen at work. Through the program, Lee could examine the contents of her e-mails and MSN conversations.
Although he suspected his wife of having an affair, he failed to find any evidence. His wife, who later discovered she was being watched, filed for divorce.
A forty-one-year-old housewife Ahn recently heard a rumor her husband had a girlfriend. Ahn, while seeking ways to track her husband, learned it is possible to identify the location of a cell phone via the Internet provided one is the owner.
Consequently, Ahn purchased a new cell phone under her name and secretly installed it in the trunk of her husband's car. It turned out that the rumor was false. When her husband found this out, he was distraught and the two eventually divorced.
Kim Sook-ki, a director of Naumi Family Culture Institute, said that just five years ago only a quarter of 5,000 consultation cases involved spying on spouses. However, these days, the portion surpasses 70 percent.
With the growing use of state-of-art information technology, young couples have diversified ways to peep into their spouses' private lives.
By using the identification number of a spouse without permission, one can use various services such as a blog, an e-mail or MSN messenger to track and check their private lives. On an Internet portal site, one can easily find ways to check spouse's text messages.
Many people purchase new cell phones and track down their spouses by installing them inside their spouses' cars.
Experts warn that even if it turns out the partner committed adultery, if the partner has proof that his or her private life was invaded, the invader can get punished under the law. If a person uses their spouse's identification number, they can get punished for identity theft.
When one tracks down the location of a spouse without getting permission, the person can be subject to imprisonment of up to five years and fined up to 50 million won, according to the Law Concerning Protection of Location Information that went into effect in 2005.
Park So-hyun, a consultant at a family law consultation center, said that many couples tend to invade their partner's privacy. However, she said that one should keep in mind that everyone has the right to their own privacy and a spouses' privacy should be respected as well.
Mobile communication companies last year submitted to the National Assembly data on cases where consumers tracked down others' location information.
According to the data, the number of tracking cases of location information reached 180 million during the period from August 2005 to July 2006. It means that during the period, 40 million cell phone users either tried to track down others' locations or were subject to secret investigation, 4.5 times on average each.
Among these, the number of people who tracked down others' location information in emergency cases only accounted for 1.2 percent of the total.
To prevent such cases, mobile communication companies recently decided to take the step from late this year, that each time a person's location information is provided to others, the person will be informed of it via a text message.