Private messages

Pawwed Rig

Just how private are private messages?

I understand that they may be read by admins in extreme circumstances (such as recent bullying incidents) per the terms and conditions of the site but a recent thread in the adverts forum and this post in particular http://www.boards.ie/ttfpost/90040650 seems to indicate that pms will be read as a matter of policy and revenue collection. Now I realise that adverts and boards are separate companies but this post would seem to indicate a shared policy statement of which many users seem not to be aware of.

Not trying to start a boards or adverts bashing thread but just a general question on privacy as there was outrage when google or yahoo admitted to reading/scanning private e-mails.

Cheers

Insect Overlord

Admins can only read PMs if they are reported. Other than that, they're totally private.

Even the technicians in the office would need to jump through ridiculous hoops to access PMs.

Zaph

Boards and Adverts are separate sites. I've no idea what the Admins there can do, but we certainly don't have, and never have had, access to PMs. The only exception to this being if a PM is reported, then a copy goes to a dedicated Reported PMs forum. I have heard of no plans to change the current setup on Boards.

Pawwed Rig

Thanks lads, that is what I was thinking. The adverts staff seem to be getting the 2 companies mixed up in the thread I quoted so may need to be put right as that thread could turn into an ugly one.

'As stated in our Terms and Conditions 'Any personal information which you include in a Personal Message while not publicly accessible is available to administrators of the Website', Please read Boards.ie's Terms and Conditions regarding their privacy policy.'

Dav

Just to reiterate - there are only 2 people who can read a Boards.ie PM - the sender and the recipient. There are 2 exceptions to this:

• *IF* a PM is reported, the Admins can see it so they can investigate it.
• *IF* a request comes in from the Courts or An Garda Siochana or the Defence Forces that has the appropriate paper work, the tech team can extract a member's PM's directly from the database.

There is no "read other PM's" functionality in our code-base - I believe it is an option other VBulletin sites have, but we don't have it on Boards and I don't believe we ever did (but I'm open to correction on that from the founders).

Black Swan

From a practical standpoint, who has the time to read all the PMs that occur each day on boards.ie? There must be hundreds; perhaps thousands. I'm a volunteer, and you could not pay me enough euros to work day-to-day reading PMs. I would be banging my head against the wall, and tearing out my hair by the end of the first week of such work.

Pawwed Rig

Black Swan wrote: »

From a practical standpoint, who has the time to read all the PMs that occur each day on boards.ie? There must be hundreds; perhaps thousands. I'm a volunteer, and you could not pay me enough euros to work day-to-day reading PMs. I would be banging my head against the wall, and tearing out my hair by the end of the first week of such work.

It is not the point of having time to read pms it is about privacy should the situation arise. The adverts rep was implying that boards and adverts would read pms at a whim but Dav and Zaph have clarified that it won't happen (on boards at least whatever about adverts).

I am sure Google or the NSA have not the time to read the inane crap that goes in and out of my e-mail account too but I still rather they do not have the ability to read it.

Steve

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

but a recent thread in the adverts forum and this post in particular http://www.boards.ie/ttfpost/90040650 seems to indicate that pms will be read as a matter of policy and revenue collection. Now I realise that adverts and boards are separate companies but this post would seem to indicate a shared policy statement of which many users seem not to be aware of.

There is no statement of a shared policy in that post that you linked.
A question was asked "Does this policy also apply to boards?" and the answer was "Please read Boards.ie's Terms and Conditions regarding their privacy policy."
How did you conclude that boards admins were possibly reading your PM's from that?
For the record, adverts mods cannot read your PMs either - same as being a boards mod. Admins there can access them under certain circumstances - same as on boards but with slightly less restrictions.

Pawwed Rig

Steve wrote: »

For the record, adverts mods cannot read your PMs either - same as being a boards mod. Admins there can access them under certain circumstances - same as on boards but with slightly less restrictions.

That was the clarification I was looking for which has been provided by Zaph and Dav. Cheers