When Marital Cheating Rocks Security and Privacy of Love Cars

Apparently, any vehicle is not safe from the eyes and ears of private detectives due to a loophole found in Italian laws.

Last August 2, 2007, Lorenzo Benini, a judge in the courts of Brescia, Italy, acquitted twenty-two people who have been accused of invasion of privacy. These individuals included spouses who had availed the services of a private agency to tail their partners and employees of the said agency who secretly planted satellite tracking devices and hidden microphones in their spouses’ cars. Customers were charged up to £1,000.

The twenty-two individuals were arrested when the police found some of the hidden devices. The judge, however, did not believe that the act of implanting the said items is not a criminal offense because “however disconcerting this may be, I find no penalty under the law for intercepting private conversations or communications in a vehicle. It is not illegal.” He further clarified that current privacy laws only specified use of tracking devices and similar items planted at a suspect’s home as illegal and nowhere else.

Benini nevertheless acknowledged that this newly discovered loophole was definitely a cause for concern and suggested that the Parliament should study the matter at hand to make the necessary changes. With this ruling, Italian citizens may be tempted to twist the legalities in their favor to get away with all possible acts of espionage.

In another case but still in Italy, a man was found guilty of excessive marital jealousy and the Court of Cassation ordered the man, only identified as Roberto, to not only leave his marital home but to move to another town as well. This was done in order to prevent him from trying to control his wife’s life any further.

The case revealed how Roberto would use a video surveillance camera to ensure that his wife Maria did not leave their home without his approval and that he even asked his mother to stay in their home whenever he was away.

An Italian women’s magazine, Donna Moderna, recently conducted a survey and which showed how 92% of Italian women would not forgive their spouses for acts of infidelity. This survey was taken one week after the resignation of Catholic MP Cosimo Mele for being caught spending a night with two prostitutes.

Of course, all debacles over marital jealousy in Italy could have an unforeseen and controversial ending if a bill proposing that marriages officiated and sanctioned by religious sects other than the Roman Catholic religion would be considered official. If approved, this would then legalize polygamous marriages of Muslim individuals.