Divorce in the digital age - poacher or gamekeeper?

But the amateur detective has his/her limitations and so the divorce world has turned to the professional “digital detectives”, who carry out “social media mapping” and “reputation audits”, e.g. the likes of Kroll and Digitalis.  Digitalis, who are London’s leaders in this field, explain that every individual and company leaves a “digital footprint”, an ever-expanding trail of publicly available information on the web. It is no surprise then that online and social media activities are becoming extremely valuable and are relied upon to prove infidelity or hidden wealth in contested divorce cases. It is not just Facebook that can be used to build a case – all information found on Google or indeed the Deep Web can be, as long as it’s publicly available and collected in the correct way.

The wealth of personal information online has made it easier for people to get caught out by their spouses and has made the lawyers job easier too. We have seen a cultural shift in the last five years, where it is now acceptable – and in some cases essential – that we share our lives online.  Social media is the main outlet for this and many people disregard (or don’t understand) privacy settings so a wealth of content is available to 3^rd party searchers.  Add to this the amount of paper archives and public records that are being digitalised by the day, and you will end up with a lot of information online about an individual. This enabled businesses like Digitalis to “use the tools …. and knowledge” of the internet to perform bespoke, open source due diligence and investigation of the target.

But who is the target and when do they become one in divorce?  The answer is just about everyone but those turning to digital detectives generally fall into two categories – the poachers or the gamekeepers.

Poacher

The classic use of the digital detective is in asset tracing, with the purpose of finding evidence, direct or anecdotal, of the existence of income or assets that have not been disclosed to the Divorce Courts.  The Guardian article “The Rich Kids of Instagram” makes interesting reading as last year Kroll uncovered multi-million pound hidden assets in a divorce case thanks to the children’s social media post.  A husband was ordered to give his wife $30M, but he claimed not to have it. Having cross-referenced geo-tagged sites with Land Registry and other equivalent Registers overseas, various properties registered in the name of their parents were uncovered and the wife got her money.

Gamekeeper

There is also a defensive role for the digital forensic expert who frequently, through some bright and dark arts, reduce the profile/impact of damaging online information, both pre- and post-divorce.  Apparently only 6% of searchers online go to pages 2 and 3 of Google, and beyond that the numbers decrease even more radically and, therefore, pushing helpful information and stories almost out of reach, or cleansing a person’s internet profile can help the impact of unwarranted or inaccurate information.

A canny wife with a philandering husband might want to make sure that her social media documents her lifestyle and travel. There is no doubt at all that every girl looks fabulous standing outside the Panamanian lawyer’s office, Monaco Trustees building or the Swiss bank. In fact, almost as good as - she might standing next to the Leer Jet, especially in sight of the jet tail number. Fathers might also want to make sure that their children’s friends and family members remember their privacy settings on social media – perhaps reminding them of the wartime anti-gossip campaign “Careless talks costs lives”.

Further information

If you have any questions relating to the issues covered in this blog, please contact Michael Rowlands or a member of our family team, who will be able to advise you on the best options for your circumstances. You may also be interested in reading our previous blog on “Divorce in the digital age – avoiding the pitfalls of social media”.