Wednesday 6 March 2013

Does your partner need to know your passwords?

The radio station I listen to in the mornings posed an interesting question this morning ...

Should married people have to share their passwords for email, Facebook or phones or still get their privacy?

People called in and others wrote on the station's Facebook timeline.  Some said yes because it's a matter of trust and you should have nothing to hide, etc.  Others said no because you are still your own person and you don't have to share everything.

I don't know any of Gord's passwords and he doesn't know mine.  It's not a trust thing ... I don't want or need to know his and I'm sure he feels the same.

We both have laptops that we have on all the time.  We are always logged into our emails, Facebook, etc. so if for any reason we wanted to peek into each other's laptops, we could.  I don't look at Gord's personal stuff and I'm assuming he doesn't look at mine.  If he did, I would be mad because he was sneaky about it not because he saw anything (because there's nothing to see).

There have been times when Gord has been away from a computer and needed info from an email so has asked me to log in to his account (I've since forgotten his password).  And I would do the same if I was in that situation.

Gord and I have separate bank accounts and charge cards.  I don't know his passwords and he doesn't know mine either.

So what do you think ... does your partner need to know your passwords?

8 comments:

Margaret B said...

I think it's a good discussion to have with your spouse/partner to set expectations and make a mutual decision on where you both stand. Frank and I have decided to share information because there's nothing to hide. That being said, I have no reason to read his emails and vice versa. When it comes to banking, we have consolidated our resources, so it's good to have transparency as to what goes in and what goes out of our account. We pay the bills together. It's working quite well.

Way Out Wear said...

Nope. Don't know his passwords, except for some accounts that we share - maybe eBaby, PayPal and the joint bank accounts. I have no desire to go through his stuff, I really don't and I doubt he cares to spend the energy going through mine. Besides there are so many different emails needed these days even I can't remember mine so I have to look them up, I don't want to keep track of all his emails either.
Even hear a secret that you wish you hadn't ? ? ?

Teresa said...

I've got nothing interesting going on, on my computer. We share passwords when the need arises. Neither of us tend to remember the others passwords either.

Knit and Purl Mama said...

I don't think my husband knows any of my passwords. I know a few of his, only because he's asked me to pay for gas with a chip credit card, or deposit a check for him at the bank (we do have separate accounts and separate credit cards, except one joint one for groceries and stuff). It's not a trust thing, but that I am my own person, and I leave my computer on all the time, and if he really wanted to snoop, he could, like you said. Like Teresa wrote, we share a code or password when the need arises...

Fizzgig said...

i think that only applies if there has been a breech of trust. Otherwise who needs to go snooping around?

Isabel said...

we know our cell phone codes and that's it. But we don't go into the other's phone. Although, I do know Joey's email password because he nevers checks it.

Masshole Mommy said...

I know my hubbys ATM password and he knows mine, but that's only because we share the account. Other than that, we don't share our passwords.

BetteJo said...

In the relationship I have now - we don't share passwords generally, but we have when we need the other one to check something for us. There is trust there and it doesn't occur to us to worry about it. My relationship before this one - however - he guarded his cell phone, he hid things - and in the end I hacked a few things and there were reasons he was being secretive. So - in a good relationship I think you might not share the passwords as a rule - but you really don't care if your partner knows your stuff.