Tracking, Recording and Spying on a Partner: Michigan Law

Michigan has no single "spying" statute. Secretly tracking, recording, or watching a partner can fall under several different laws: a tracking-device misdemeanor, eavesdropping and hidden-camera felonies, a computer-access felony, and the stalking statutes.^{[1][2][3][6][4]} Being married to or living with the other person is not listed as an exception in the tracking-device statute.^[7][8]

If you think you are being tracked or monitored, consider using a phone or computer the other person cannot access. The National Domestic Violence Hotline describes its service as free, confidential, and available 24/7 at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), or by texting START to 88788.^[9] If you are in immediate danger, call 911.

This page takes each law in turn, sets out what it covers and what it leaves open, and explains how surveillance becomes stalking.

Is it illegal to put a tracker on someone's car?

MCL 750.539l makes four things a misdemeanor punishable by up to 1 year in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both:^[1]

• Installing or placing a tracking device in or on a motor vehicle without the knowledge and consent of the vehicle's owner or, if it is leased, the lessee.^[1]
• Tracking the location of a motor vehicle with a tracking device without the knowledge and consent of the owner or the authorized operator.^[1]
• While being the restrained party under a protective order, tracking the location of a motor vehicle operated or occupied by a person protected under that order.^[1]
• While on probation or parole for an assaultive crime or for certain domestic assault offenses, tracking a vehicle operated or occupied by the victim of that crime or a member of the victim's family without that person's knowledge and consent.^[1]

A "tracking device" is any electronic device designed or intended to be used to track the location of a motor vehicle, whether or not the information is recorded.^[10] A "protective order" includes a personal protection order (PPO), a foreign protection order, and protective conditions of pretrial release, probation, and parole.^[10] The definition expressly lists an order entered under MCL 765.6b, the statute that governs protective conditions of pretrial release.^[10]

Notice the difference between the first two items and the third. The first two depend on the consent of the owner, lessee, or authorized operator. The third does not mention ownership at all: once a protective order is in place, the restrained person may not track a vehicle the protected person operates or occupies.^[1]

One drafting point: the fourth item still cites domestic assault subsections by their pre-2016 numbers, because the tracking statute was not updated when MCL 750.81 was renumbered.^[11]

Who is exempt?

Exemption	Limit
Built-in or subscription vehicle services that give the operator navigation, traffic, diagnostic, emergency, or missing-vehicle assistance	The exemptions are tied to services for the vehicle's operator or owner[8]
A parent or guardian of a minor	Only for a vehicle owned or leased by the parent, guardian, or minor and operated by the minor[7]
A police officer	While lawfully performing his or her duties[7]
A licensed professional investigator gathering evidence	Not if the client is the restrained party under a protective order, or the investigator knows or has reason to know the client wants the service to aid a crime or wrong[7]

Besides the criminal penalty, a person who illegally installs or uses a tracking device is liable for all damages the installation or use causes to the vehicle's owner or lessee.^[10]

What the tracking statute leaves open

The statute's text leaves two questions unanswered. First, the offense turns on the consent of "the owner," and the text does not say how that applies to a vehicle titled to both partners.^[7] Second, the statute is written around motor vehicles; its definition of a tracking device does not mention phones, apps, or shared location accounts.^[10] Where the tracking-device statute does not reach, the laws below may.

Recording conversations and hidden cameras

Michigan's eavesdropping statutes date from 1967 and are written in terms of devices and private places.^[12]

Eavesdropping on a conversation. A person who willfully uses any device to eavesdrop on a private conversation without the consent of all parties to it is guilty of a felony punishable by up to 2 years in prison, a fine of up to $2,000, or both. The statute applies whether or not the person is present during the conversation.^[2] "Eavesdrop" means to overhear, record, amplify, or transmit any part of the private discourse of others without the permission of all persons engaged in it.^[12] A recorder left in a partner's car or a listening app placed on a partner's phone to capture that person's conversations with other people can fall within those words, depending on the facts.^[12][2] How the phrase "of others" applies to someone recording a conversation he or she is part of is a question for the courts, and it is not answered here.

Cameras and recorders in a private place. It is a felony to install, place, or use in any private place, without the consent of the person or persons entitled to privacy there, any device for observing, recording, transmitting, photographing, or eavesdropping upon the sounds or events in that place. The maximum is 2 years and $2,000 for a first offense and 5 years and $5,000 with a prior conviction under the section.^[3] Distributing or transmitting a recording or image obtained that way is a felony punishable by up to 5 years and $5,000.^[3] A "private place" is one where a person may reasonably expect to be safe from casual or hostile intrusion or surveillance.^[12]

The section does not prohibit security monitoring in a residence conducted by or at the direction of the owner or principal occupant, unless it is conducted for a lewd or lascivious purpose.^[3] The statute does not explain how that exception fits a home two people share, and practice on that point should be checked with a lawyer.

Using what was captured. A person who uses or divulges information he or she knows or reasonably should know was obtained through unlawful eavesdropping or surveillance commits a separate felony. The parties to a conversation that was unlawfully eavesdropped upon can also sue for an injunction, actual damages, and punitive damages.^[13]

Getting into a partner's phone, email or accounts

Michigan's computer-access law says a person shall not, intentionally and without authorization or by exceeding valid authorization, access a computer program, computer, computer system, or computer network to acquire, alter, damage, delete, or destroy property or otherwise use its service. It also prohibits inserting, without authorization, a set of instructions or a program intended to acquire or alter property or use the system's services.^[6] A violation is a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.^[6]

Whether a given act between partners was "without authorization" is fact-specific, particularly where passwords were once shared, and this page does not state a rule on it. The point for readers is that reading another adult's accounts or installing monitoring software is not automatically lawful because the two people are in a relationship.

When does tracking become stalking?

Stalking is a willful course of conduct involving repeated or continuing harassment that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested, and that actually causes the victim to feel that way.^[4] A course of conduct is two or more separate noncontinuous acts showing a continuity of purpose.^[14] The statute's examples of unconsented contact include following or appearing within sight of a person, appearing at the person's workplace or residence, and placing an object on the person's property.^[15]

Surveillance can be part of that pattern when the other parts of the definition are met. The consequences build in steps:

• Stalking is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 1 year in jail, and since February 13, 2024 there is a separate domestic-relationship subdivision with the same maximum.^[16][17]
• Stalking is aggravated stalking, a felony punishable by up to 5 years, if at least one act violates a restraining order of which the person has received actual notice, or a condition of pretrial release, probation, or parole.^[5][18]
• Using the internet or a computer to commit stalking is a separate felony.^[19]

A domestic relationship PPO can prohibit stalking conduct, and PPOs and protective conditions of pretrial release are both "protective orders" under the tracking-device statute.^[20][10] See Stalking (MCL 750.411h), Aggravated stalking, and What a PPO can prohibit.

Related conduct has its own pages: harassing calls and texts and online harassment and posting messages. Sharing a private sexually explicit image of an adult with the intent to threaten, coerce, or intimidate is a separate misdemeanor.^[21][22]

Court-ordered GPS is different

Nothing on this page concerns a GPS tether ordered by a judge. When a defendant charged with a crime involving domestic violence is released on bond, the judge may order the defendant to wear an electronic monitoring device as a condition of release.^[23] That is a court order with its own rules, explained in GPS tethers and alcohol testing on bond.

If you are gathering evidence, or are accused

Tracking or secretly recording another person to collect proof can itself be a crime under the statutes above.^[1][2][3] How messages, recordings, and phone records are handled in court is covered in Texts, social media and phone records.

Do not delete or alter devices, apps, or messages once a case is foreseeable. Knowingly and intentionally removing, altering, concealing, or destroying evidence to be offered in a present or future official proceeding is a felony.^[24]

A person accused under any of these statutes is presumed innocent, and the prosecutor must prove each element beyond a reasonable doubt.^[25] Tools for keeping a new address private are described in Keeping your address confidential.