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By Greg Bartlett

Marriage offers its adherents two competing prospects: unimaginable happiness and indescribable bitterness. Marriages founded on trust increase happiness. Marriages founded on suspicion increase bitterness. Most of us found our marriages on a covenant of trust with some promise of fidelity. This foundation can be diligently maintained through mutual transparency. Believe it or not, a 21^st century technological advancement may help you and your spouse maintain trust through mutual transparency and accountability. All spouses have seasons of weakness and vulnerability that, when poorly managed, can ruin a marriage. A GPS tracking device, when used by mutual consent, may protect you and your spouse from crushing mistakes during those crucial moments.

GPS Tracking & Spouses

What is a GPS tracking device and which device would best enable you and your wife to practice mutual accountability? First, GPS devices in general utilize the global positioning system‘s satellites to pinpoint locations around the globe. GPS tracking devices in particular use the GPS satellites to store location information locally (passive tracking) or remotely (live tracking). The location information, once obtained, can be used to determine the chronological location of the GPS device. The chronological-location map provides the necessary information for increased accountability. Second, you and your should determine whether a passive or live tracking system would best protect your relationship. Each has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of a passive tracking system is that the tracking information is kept discreet and local (i.e. no obtrusive 3^rd-party). The advantage of a live tracking system is remote access to the captured tracking information (i.e. the tracking information can often be obtained over the internet in real time).

If your spouse does not want the increased accountability and transparency provided by GPS tracking devices, carefully weigh the decision to secretly monitor his or her whereabouts. Recording his or her whereabouts without mutual consent could be interpreted as an “invasion of privacy.” In a recent case of video monitoring, a judge found a man liable for recording his wife’s bedroom activities without her consent. To date, no spouse tracking case has been tried in the United States and interpreted as an invasion of privacy. The potential liability, however, warrants caution.

Once you and your spouse have decided to hold each other mutually accountable, you will need to determine which devices to purchase and where to place them. You can purchase tracking devices for cars and/or persons. Many of these devices can provide an increased level of mutual transparency that will strengthen your marriage.