Brit couple ordered to swap social website passwords by divorce judge

London, Nov 17 (ANI): A judge in England has ordered an estranged couple to swap Facebook and MySpace passwords as part of their divorce proceedings.

Judge Kenneth Shluger told Stephen and Courtney Gallion to give up their login details for all their social networking sites so their lawyers could trawl for incriminating evidence.

The couple must also hand over any other such information for dating websites like EHarmony and match.com, which the wife had already joined.

Both the couple have been banned from changing the password or deleting any material for the foreseeable future by the judge at New London Supreme Court in Connecticut, the Daily Mail reported.

Nor can they log in as the other person and pretend to be them to prank others.

The extraordinary move came after Mr Gallion's lawyer claimed that his wife's life on the Internet could provide ammunition for their divorce battle.

Forbes magazine reported that during a hearing, attorney Gary Traystman asked the judge for the unusual measure at which point Mrs Gallion immediately texted a friend and asked them to change the passwords and delete some messages.

Fearing she was destroying evidence Mr Traystman appealed to the judge who made the ruling in his favour, and Mrs Gallion complied. (ANI)