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Is it legal to read someones text messages from their phone

 
JPEsq's Avatar
  • Answered by:JPEsq
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Customer Question

Is it legal to read someones text messages from their phone without permission? (IE: If you know who's phone it is, and it's laying around, can they look through it without permission?)

 

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State/Country relating to Question: Pennsylvania

Submitted: 1126 days and 23 hours ago.
Category: Legal
Value: $18
Status: CLOSED

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Expert:  JPEsq replied 1126 days and 23 hours ago.

It is not "illegal" in the sense that you can be charged with a crime for it (I supposed you could be charged with theft, because you would have deprived the person of the use of that phone without authorization, but that would be a pretty big stretch). But you could be sued for invasion of privacy in civil court.

Expert TypeAttorney
Category: Legal
Pos. Feedback: 99.3 %
Accepts: 2131
Answered: 3/5/2010

Experience: Experience as general attorney, in house counsel, SSDI, Family Law attorney, and law professor

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