Can Administrators and Mods Read PMs?

[SwampWitch]

I'm very curious about this so I thought I'd post this question on a board I trust. I'm going to guess Administrators can see everything... but can the moderators read member's private PMs?

This is currently being debated on another site I visit, but it's difficult to trust the mods saying "no" when others state they have emails from banned members who say their PMs must have been read by the mods.

What is the truth? Thanks in advance!

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

this "board" is a vBulletin one...

Without getting to techy, (unless you want me to), yes it is possible for the SuperAdmin and whomever they wish to read PM's.

The only person here that would be able to read PM's is me, no one else.

I however have never had the need to read any PM's.

There are a lot of moral etc implications.

I know of other 'webmasters' that have to have the ability to read Pm's because of the age of their 'customers', the PM's are automatically checked in case of inappropriate behaviour.

This however is not a feature built into vBulletin the owner of the site needs to download a 'plugin' to do this.

I would not believe what you are being told on the other website !

If they want to read the PM's then they can. At least the main Admin would be able to.

This is a link to the patch, and quite an active discussion on the subject !

regards

Ric

 

[searay345]

WOW Ric! Very informative and you beat me to it.

I just sent her a PM in response because I wasn't sure how open you were towards this type of conversation.

And yes, it most certainly does have moral implications. Actually, this is a very interesting issue or discussion relating to internet and internet privacy.

 

[Ric]

..the Internet isn't private !

;-)

 

[searay345]

..the Internet isn't private !

;-)

D'oh!

 

[Ric]

There is a lot of naivety when it comes to privacy on the Internet...

Most people who work in Offices have no idea that the IT department (by request of the big bosses !) can and do routinely read every incoming and outgoing email.

They can also tell you what computer has visited what website at any given time...

I am always amazed when going into companies on how many people think that because their 'boss' can't see them using myspace or flickr etc then they think they are getting away with it...till the annual review comes round.

Everything is logged...

 

[Ric]

Nowadays when people sign a "Contract of Employment", there will be a section that says... "we (the company) can and routinely do check/scan all Internet and email activity"...or something along those lines.

Which basically means, everything can be read and monitored.

 

[$iddie]

I am the admin for three different boards, all running on PHPBB (a different system from vBulletin) one on the new system 3 and two on the older system 2, and I have never found any way using the software to read any PMs. I set these boards up, and so have some knowledge of how they work.
However, if I was a database geek, I would probably find a way. I do know that the database is encrypted, so it wouldn't be easy... and probably not worth my while
Just my few cents...

Siddie.

 

[SwampWitch]

Very informative! Thanks so much!

 

[Ric]

Hi Siddie,

a similar mod is available for PHPBB boards. As you say database geeks can get into this data very easily...

Personally I don't see why under normal circumstances any admin neads to read PM's.

regards

Ric

 

[Ric]

No problem Swampwitch, we have nothing to hide here !

;-)

regards

Ric

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

This is interesting as I have always erred on the side of caution in this respect.

As most here, I am a member of a few other forums and I just delete my PMs when I've read them as I wouldn't trust that my PMs weren't being peeped at .....

I also eventually prefer to communicate via either iChat or email anyway with members I am friendly with.

I would be interested in knowing if my deleted PMs are visible to the SuperAdmin or some other higher being??

 

[searay345]

There is a lot of naivety when it comes to privacy on the Internet...

Oh I know this first hand!! I know that IT's can see all internet traffic and log the info.

What I meant was that this could be an interesting topic about internet privacy as in how it relates to outer corporate activities.

I also eventually prefer to communicate via either iChat or email anyway with members I am friendly with.

I agree with you there! PM's are great if you don't want to expose your email address to the public and at the same time, be a bit more personal than on a public board.

I would be interested in knowing if my deleted PMs are visible to the SuperAdmin or some other higher being??

I have been a Mod at a few boards in my "boarding career." In all of them, I couldn't even read new PMs from anyone. I have never been an Admin or SuperAdmin or SuperMod, so I can't say if you can or not. But that would be an interesting thing to know as well.

 

[Ric]

...you do realise that iChat is not secure ?

Any 'board' such as this is 'run' by a database...so without knowing everyones tech background...

Basically speaking when a PM is written/sent it is just another field in the database.

As far as I know, vBulletin doesn't encrypt this data, but they do not provide access to it. So most sites such as this do not have access to PM's.

However, bullying, spamming, verbal abuse etc is becoming more common via PM's and so some Webmin's set up automated software to 'read' all messages and flag up any that seem innapropriate, I think this is more on under 18 style websites, you know the ones !

Our 'audience' is generally older and so we don't have those problems...but if someone sent me an email/PM saying such and such was bullying/spamming etc then I would have no choice but to install the plugin and read the 'alleged offending PM's'.

As for "I would be interested in knowing if my deleted PMs are visible to the SuperAdmin or some other higher being??" well...

If you remember above, the PM's are written to a database...so if the database is backed up when the PM's were still there then yes someone could read them by going to a backup file, depending on how that site backed up.

...the only PM's I get are from people who can't wait for an answer in the forums ;-)

regards

Ric