One in five admit logging into partner’s email, social networks


27 Jul 2011

One in five people in a relationship has logged onto his or her partner’s – or an ex-partner’s – email or social networking account without the partner or ex-partner’s knowledge, a survey of couples in Britain by YouGov suggests.

Women (22pc) are slightly more likely to use a password without their partners’ knowledge than men (18pc), the survey suggests, with 18-24-year-olds (38pc) most likely to log into a partner or ex-partner’s account in secret.

Twenty-nine per cent of survey respondents age 25-39 have helped themselves to their partners’ email account and social networks, and 10pc of those over 60 have done the same.

The amount of people in a relationship who have shared their email or social networking account password with their partner is 58pc, and 61pc have been given their partner’s password.

Survey participants aged 25-39 are most likely to have given (61pc) and received (67pc) passwords.