Is it illegal to record someone?

Asked this above but it wasn't answered. What about undercover journalists? What of the News of the World that apparently hacked into the mobile phones of those Pakistani cricketers?
 
the ones who where proved to have accessed peoples voice mail got jail time iirc.

but that's a completely different matter because it wasn't recording.


As for undercover journalists again, they don't record people in their private bedrooms.
 
Well I've certainly prompted some interesting points here, thanks everyone.

I have it on reasonably good authority that it's not illegal to record simply audio, especially as this wasn't for 'sexual gratification'.

I assume she took my drive because she suspects there are recordings on it of her (which there aren't), and the police would only accept such a thing if she made an allegation at the time. I'm going to find out what that allegation was, for surely if it was for audio recordings then no crime has been committed and there are therefore no grounds for her submitting my drive.

It's outrageous that hours of my life, financial details etc. can be handed over like that and there's probably nothing I can do about it.

Who knows, I may be able to get some sense out of her shortly - I'll give it a go, but she's the archetypal woman scorned and is likely to spontaneously combust if I ask her why she's doing all of this.

Citizen's advice was a good suggestion, I'm also going to speak to a lawyer about it. I know I did wrong, but two wrongs don't make a right (to use an old cliche!).


p.s. I presume I'm going to have to shell out on a new drive and a new copy of Windows 7 then...i.e. I can't just use the key again as it's been activated online etc. for one particular PC?
 
Out of interest, how does infidelity effect a divorce case?. If the OP were to have found something out, and maybe used that confirmed suspicion to find actual submittable proof (through a private investigator for instance..) how would that effect divorce proceedings/outcomes?.

It would also depend on the divorce type - if you're going for a fault based divorce (e.g. adultery) and a split of assets based on that then being able to prove infidelity is an extremely handy thing to do. If you're not then while it might be interesting for you it's ultimately a bit meaningless - it may also suggest you've gone for the wrong type of divorce if you're aiming for a larger split of the assets.

A few years back there were essentially 5 grounds for divorce - adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion, separation for two years with consent and separation for five years (no consent needed) - it was mooted that they should bring down the time periods for the separation based divorces but I don't know if they have in fact done this yet. For the first three types they are all fault based and it should be relatively obvious where the fault lies. For the latter two types there is no need to prove fault, you've either got to agree to the divorce or in the last type you've just got to be separated for long enough.

//edit I'm not sure for Windows 7 specifically but with older versions of Windows you could install it again provided you are only using the licence on one machine at a time.
 
Why is she the archetype woman scorned? What has the OP. done other than record her? There is more to this story than is being told.

Oh and you only need a hard disk. You can reinstall and reactivate Windows as you're only using it once. It's just like a normal re-install.
 
not sure wether it is legal to record or not; however, I am pretty sure that if she was unfaithful it would be immaterial in a divorce case anyway

This may be the case, however the evidence on cam will show if she was unfaithful. The opinion of the judge can be influenced that she had be up to some thing, though the cam footage will not be allowed as she did not consent to it.
However, it still shows that she was unfaithful and that it was matters !
 
This may be the case, however the evidence on cam will show if she was unfaithful. The opinion of the judge can be influenced that she had be up to some thing, though the cam footage will not be allowed as she did not consent to it.
However, it still shows that she was unfaithful and that it was matters !

The lawyer wouldn't even be able to admit the evidence to the court, though, and without it the whole thing becomes a case of his word against hers. The lawyer may well know from the tape that the wife has absolutely 100% been unfaithful, but if he can't present that to the court, you're stuck.
 
The lawyer wouldn't even be able to admit the evidence to the court, though, and without it the whole thing becomes a case of his word against hers. The lawyer may well know from the tape that the wife has absolutely 100% been unfaithful, but if he can't present that to the court, you're stuck.

can the wife however submit that the husband secretly filmed her as evidence of well his "weirdness"?
 
I'm quite impressed she knew about HD's and how to remove them, not exactly rocket science but most people would have no idea.
 
The lawyer wouldn't even be able to admit the evidence to the court, though, and without it the whole thing becomes a case of his word against hers. The lawyer may well know from the tape that the wife has absolutely 100% been unfaithful, but if he can't present that to the court, you're stuck.

At least it will give the OP some where to start investigating.
Her behaviour is very suspicious by stealing the HDD, so there is some ting to hide !
 
Is it not strange that when women find a new party how they can turn very nasty towards the now old one !
She is guilty as charged !
 
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