According to an IFOP* study conducted in April 2023 for Le Journal du Geek, 4 out of 10 French people admit to having already snooped in their partner's smartphone. This practice, which the Anglo-Saxons call "snooping", is more common among women (44%) than men (35%). Young people would be particularly fond of it.

Thus, 78% of women and 73% of men under 25 say they have already spied on the smartphone of their half, compared to respectively 67% and 56% of people under 35. These proportions continue to decline with age, with only 33% of those over 35 saying they have practiced snooping in their lifetime.


While the law against domestic violence now punishes "digital espionage", @IfopOpinion for @JournalDuGeek went to probe the French on this subject.
👉 ... Breaches of digital intimacy, a symptom of control and domestic violence? ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/mimAPg4RP8

— Ifop Opinion (@IfopOpinion) May 11, 2023

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Private messages and social networks

The survey also reveals that 57% of men and women under 25 have been victims of this type of intrusion. Half of the people who searched their spouse's phone, however, claim to have discovered something hidden from them (infidelity, activity on dating sites, consultation of pornographic sites, etc.), and 35% of respondents would have discovered on this occasion that their partner was lying to them.

What are they looking for first? If the French as a whole first check the private messages of their partners, young people are first interested in the activity of their half on social networks, and in particular the accounts that it follows.

Forced intrusions

Thus, 32% of women and 23% of men have already consulted their spouse's private exchanges on his phone. However, if these rates rise to 58% and 46% respectively for those under 25, young people are still more interested in social networks since 60% and 42% of them first check this point.

Espionage is nonetheless a dangerous game. According to the survey, one in five people say that these violations of privacy have led to arguments or even a breakup. Especially since these intrusions are sometimes imposed: 26% of the 2,006 people interviewed were ordered by their partner to let him or her access the content of their smartphone. A practice that, again, is much more widespread among young people. In fact, 56% of people under 25 say they have already faced this type of situation.

*IFOP study for Le Journal Du Geek conducted by self-administered questionnaire online from 13 to 17 April 2023 with a sample of 2,006 people, representative of the French population aged 18 and over, including 1,376 people in couples.

  • Society
  • Espionage
  • Smartphone
  • Telephone
  • Couple
  • Infidelite
  • Survey