Dividing your property will likely be at the forefront of your mind when divorcing. But one area that is easily overlooked is the digital world that you and your soon-to-be ex-spouse currently share.
This digital world may comprise many different accounts. Some of these may contain things of value, like movies that you have paid to download, or photos of your children throughout their lives. There may even be things such as theater scripts or unpublished songs that might have been worked on together, stored on a cloud account.
How to handle them
Some things, such as photos, you might be best off copying to two individual accounts (or alternative places) so you can close the existing account. Other times, you might need to decide who gets what, as some accounts do not permit sharing or copying.
Then there is the login and payment information for all these accounts. You don’t want your ex still being able to access your payment details if it is your name on the card stored by a particular account.
Privacy also matters
Another reason for drawing a line under your digital sharing is that if you can both still log into something like Netflix or an internet browser on the old shared account, you might be able to see what the other is up to long after the marriage is over. In some cases, this could just be embarrassing, such as if a wife discovers her ex-husband has been watching adult movies. In other cases, it could be far more damaging, such as if the husband discovers his wife had been having an affair with his best friend because the shared computer he got to keep in the marriage still had the login details to his now ex-wife’s email saved.
There is so much to consider in a divorce that seeking legal guidance is always bound to be beneficial.