Planting spyware

[thebird]

I used some spyware to spy on someone about two years ago and while I felt justified in doing so then, it has bothered me ever since. I would appreciate it if any of you would give me your opinion on this, more detailed account below.

My friend's girlfriend started noticing entries in her search history (via google) on her phone that were basically asking how to commit suicide with various medications, and she wasn't the one performing the searches. We figured out all of the computers that she had been logged into around the time the searches happened and one of the computers was my younger brother's machine.

He has had health problems since he was five, is afraid to leave the house, and doesn't have any friends since he got out of high school. What really made us suspect my brother was that several of the medications mentioned were prescription only medications that my brother was taking at that time. As you might imagine, my mother was quite upset about all this.

My mother asked me to check his computers to see if there was anything. I looked but the search history and temporary files had been cleaned out, there had been something that he wanted to hide but I couldn't tell what. My mother didn't want to confront him directly unless we had something more to go on so I suggested installing some monitoring software.

The software I used included a key-logger and would take screenshots at specific intervals. I also used a password cracking tool to gain access to the machine. It turned out that it wasn't him (the girlfriend had also been logged on at another person's house). Unfortunately, I also learned what kind of porn he likes and what times he was looking at it (basically every second that he was alone).

So, if that wasn't too much for you to read, do you think that I did the right thing?

[Richs_Yard]

I lost it at the porn part.

And yes, it is purely justified if you thought he was having suicidal thoughts.

[Adlersch]

If it was in the interest of keeping someone you love safe when you know they're in danger, then how far is too far?

For me, I don't think there is a point at which I would stop and say, "This is just too much. I must risk their lives."

Likewise, I'll say that what you did is justified in the interests of protecting your brother. However, it is now your responsibility to respect his privacy and not mention this to him or anyone else that knows him. Even if you know his deepest, darkest secret, as long as it doesn't threaten to hurt him, you need to let him keep on thinking his secret is safe.

Otherwise, you tried to protect him. Well done, let it go. Hopefully the less you dwell and worry about it, the more likely you are to forget his pornographic preferences.

[thebird]

However, it is now your responsibility to respect his privacy and not mention this to him or anyone else that knows him.

That's why I posted this here, nobody that I know uses this forum.

I did have to confront him about his porn watching habits later as he was looking at porn on our mother's work laptop and causing problems for her at work (lots of malware and badly hidden porn). Teaching your younger brother how to safely search for porn is kinda uncomfortable.

Anyway, thanks for the responses.