You spy a handsome man in the bar. Is it worth giving out your number? How easy or hard would it be for your spouse to find out?
Experts don't exactly agree on what percentage of people in supposedly monogamous relationships end up cheating; estimates run the gamut from 11 to 50 percent. Many study and survey results seem to fall around the 20 to 25 percent mark, still a sobering range.
Advertisement
For those who don't have moral qualms about cheating, or whose qualms are short circuited when a tempting opportunity arises, technology has added lots of new practical reasons to remain above-board with your significant other and avoid cheating -- at least if you fear getting caught. In these days of instant digital communication and the information trail it leaves, there are more ways your infidelity can be discovered, even if you think you are carefully covering your tracks.
One issue is that just because you delete something from your computer or phone doesn't mean it's really gone. There are computer forensics companies that specialize in recovering data for suspicious spouses and other clients. Recovery tools, as well as tracking and monitoring software and hardware, are also easy to obtain these days. And, as ever, your significant other can hire a private investigator, and he or she has access to lots of newfangled tools with which to spy on you.
An industrious partner can even find incriminating information without professional help by looking in a few key places on your shared computer, your phone or any social media sites you or your friends frequent. Therewas always the danger of self-betrayal from lipstick on a collar to a hotel receipt in a pocket to simply acting guilty or suspicious. But the wondrous advancements of this digital age also give us new and creative ways to slip up.
But a percentage of people will actually cheat despite the breach in ethics or risk of discovery. Here are 10 ways these cheaters can be betrayed by technology, often the very technology that is aiding them in their indiscretions.