Taiwanese man gets three months in prison for hacking wife’s Facebook account to win her back

Local court finds man guilty of breaching his wife’s privacy

Representational image: A Taiwanese man hacked into his wife’s Facebook account to send messages to his daughter and mother-in-law (AP)

A man in Taiwan was sent to prison for three months for logging into his wife’s Facebook account in an attempt to win her back.

A local court found the man – identified as just Hou by local media – guilty of breaching his wife’s privacy on the social media platform and sent him to prison for three months.

The couple had a dispute in May last year, according to the Taipei Times. Following this, his wife left the house they shared in Chiayi city in the southwest of the island and took their young daughter along.

The wife, identified as Ms Yu, reportedly refused to take her husband’s calls and cut all contact after the heated row.

He then hacked into his wife’s Facebook account to send a message to his daughter and mother-in-law. In the message, using his wife’s Facebook account, he apologised for his behaviour and asked that his mother-in-law and daughter intervene in the row.

The Taipei court was told that the man logged into his wife’s Facebook account twice, on 31 May and 1 June last year, to contact his daughter and mother-in-law.

The age of their daughter is unclear.

It was also not clear why the man used his wife’s account or if he had his own Facebook account.

After learning about the breach of her privacy, Ms Yu reportedly filed criminal charges against Hou.

The court’s ruling earlier this month emphasised that individuals do not relinquish their right to privacy upon marriage.

The Taiwanese man also pleaded guilty before the judges and was convicted of “offences against computer security” under Taiwan’s criminal code, according to the Straits Times.

He was charged for using his wife’s password to access her Facebook account without her consent and for “altering [her] digital record” by using her account to send messages.

The court sentenced him to three months in prison, with the option to commute the sentence by paying a fine of NT$1,000 (approximately £25) per day.