Online Stalking? 37% Of Women Say It's OK To E-Snoop On A Significant Other (SURVEY)

Would your sift through the emails, texts and voicemails of a significant other? A new survey indicates that women are more likely than men to be OK with doing a little bit of online and electronic stalking if they suspect their romantic interest of "bad behavior." Just another way technology complicates our dating lives...

The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of post-50 dating site OurTime.com, looks at the dating behaviors and preferences of 2,258 adults (18 or older) across the country. Unsurprisingly, what daters find to be acceptable or commonplace differs based on age group, physical location and gender. Whereas 37 percent of women are totally fine with "e-snooping" on their dates, only 29 percent of men said the same. Age also has a big impact on one's comfort with invading a significant other's technological privacy. Thirty-six percent of 18 to 34-year-olds and 40 percent of 35 to 44-year-olds said they'd feel comfortable doing so, compared to only 26 percent of people over the age of 55.

In a world where Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest/Instagram stalking has become commonplace, and users put personal information on the World Wide Web every day, is it really all that surprising that what constitutes an invasion of privacy gets complicated? A survey released by eHarmony in July found that 43 percent of men and 54 percent of women were likely to online stalk their dates before going out with them. And they may have their reasons. As blogger Meghan Mess' clever flow chart shows, dating in the Internet age can be rough for women.

The survey also found that female respondents were less flexible when it came to dating outside of their race. Fifty-one percent of women said that they would date someone of a different racial or ethnic background, compared to 65 percent of men. And when it comes to cheating, men and women also differ. Only 37 percent of men said that they'd forgive a partner for being unfaithful, while 46 percent of women said that they would be more forgiving.

[H/T Mashable]