Are You a Digital Spy?

I have been covering some of the interesting Retreveo studies (see recent post - Is Social Media Better Than ???? - Addiction Study - and last year’s Study of Social Media Addiction from Retrevo). The latest Retrevo Gadgetology study asked people whether or not they found it too tempting to spy on someone else’s email. They discovered that 38% those under 25, in a dating relationship have “snooped” on their boyfriends or girlfriends messages. Unfortunately, 10% of that age group who “snooped” discovered that the other person was unfaithful and ended up breaking off the relationship. When they expand the group to include everyone, the percentage of email snoopers goes down to 28%.

While couples in a dating relationship snoop slightly more than married couples, 36% of couples in a committed relationship (spouses and partners) indicated they check emails or call histories without their significant other’s knowledge. Compared to the 10% of dating couples who discovered infidelities only 3% of this group in committed relationships discovered they were being cheated on, still not a good result.

Is this high level of spying a reflection of a lack of trust or the tempting curiosity facilitated by the ease of checking things out?  Is it related to the social media addiction I wrote about before?  What would you do?