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Social media may affect your divorce

Minnesota residents know social media has become a way for individuals to interact and share their thoughts and life events. Emotional outbursts while going through a divorce might best be left to less public communication methods. Speaking openly about the dissolution of a marriage may be used in court. Posts on Facebook remain even if deleted if someone else copies the post before it is gone.

Cellphones play an important role in communication. However, they also allow someone to potentially track where the phone and its user are at any given moment. In order to rid the phone of tracking apps, it is possible to back the phone up and reset it to the original settings, essentially removing everything. Couples share many aspects of their lives, including their internet passwords. Logging onto different sites or even a cable provider requires a password that the ex-partner may know or easily guess. Online account passwords were shared by 67 percent of couples, and about 27 percent divulged their email logins to one another, according to one study. It may also be wise to change security questions since an ex-partner may know the answers.

Many couples share an abundance of other accounts such as movie or cloud services. Checking them makes it easy for someone to see what movies are watched, giving them an inkling into the person's emotional status. Using a cloud account opens up pictures, emails and vacation adventures stored there to an ex-spouse. Closing such accounts and reopening them under a new email, password and, if required, a new credit card may be wise.

Divorce changes the social framework within which the former spouses will be living. An attorney may offer insight into an individual's specific situation and ways in which a little preventive legwork may ward off future problems.

Source: USA Today, "Divorcing? 5 things to do online now", Kim Komando, July 11, 2014

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