Fresno, CA asked in Criminal Law, Internet Law and Securities Law for California

Q: If I told somebody they could have a computer hard drive, are they legally allowed to browse my personal data?

My ex wife is claiming that while she said in an email that she would return my computer after she backed up her files, I had previously told her via text that she should keep the hard drives. Her intent is to access the hard drives' data, including ten years worth of my data, and copy whatever she likes.

One of the hard drives has a windows installation, which is protected by my login information. The only way she will be able to access this particular hard drive's data, is if she hooks the hard drives up as secondary drives, and if she does that, she will need to "Take Ownership" of the filesystem. Does this count as account security bypass? And is it illegal for her to do this? I have previously told her that I did not approve of her accessing my data.

The other hard drive was a secondary drive, contains my personal documents, and there is no data of her creation on it.

1 Lawyer Answer
Dale S. Gribow
Dale S. Gribow
Answered
  • Criminal Law Lawyer
  • Palm Desert, CA
  • Licensed in California

A: if you gave it to her you probably should have thought of that then.

you can contact a lawyer to send a demand letter for the return of the drive.

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