Firstly, I am very sorry that you need an article like this one – I have been through divorce, I survived & so will you. I’m here to help you to navigate this from the technology side of things in hopes that it will make the road a little less bumpy.
1st Step – create a new email account for your correspondence with your attorney. Easiest in my opinion, go to gmail.com & create a new account. This was recommended to me by my lawyer and was invaluable for a few reasons:
- Only myself and my attorney had the email address
- All correspondence with the attorney was in one place – it was easy to find what I needed when I needed it
- Retention purposes – again, everything was in one place & still is to this day
2nd Step – Password Management – there are probably many sites/apps that you may both need access to during the discovery piece of the divorce process such as joint banks accounts, etc. so I would not recommend changing any passwords for sites/apps that you share – there is no need to add more frustration for either of you. If you have a password list or a password vault, it might be a good idea that each of you has a copy for these types of sites.
For those sites/apps that you are yours alone, for example, your Apple ID, email accounts and/or social accounts, I would recommend changing those passwords ASAP. If you are given an option to log off all devices, choose that – this will sign you out of all your devices & force you to log back in with the new credentials. This is an important step. For example, for Mac users, if you remain logged in with your Apple ID on an old computer, anyone with access to that computer can see your text messages, etc.
For my iOS users, if you’ve created a Family Sharing Account, you’ll need to discuss what that will look like moving forward & remove persons accordingly – here is an article on Family Sharing – https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/what-is-family-sharing-mchl556f55f3/mac
It is extremely important that you use unique passwords for each site, many hackers are savvy and if they guess one of your passwords, they will apply that same password or variations of that password to banks, investment firms, etc. It is a pain, but it is the safest option! I use an app called Evernote to keep track of my passwords. There are many password vault apps out there, to help you keep track of passwords – some of my clients like LastPass if you need one. An old-fashioned way is to keep them written down & off the computer, that works too.
3rd Step – Inventory your technology – you’ll need to do this as part of discovery, but it is a good exercise in having a list of what you have for tech and what you might want to change. You can also use this list for insurance purposes when you obtain a new policy.
I hope this article was helpful, if you find you would like assistance, please reach out to me – [email protected] or 512-825-7767. Wishing you a peaceful process.
