The Study of Racialism

fwsweet · Posted: Mon 16 Jul 2007 15:06 Post subject: When is "private" not so private?

When is "private" not so private?

There are three kinds of "inviolable" privacy in this website.

First, some forums are visible only to members of those forums. They are private in the sense that no one (not even myself, the site administrator) can see them without the forum moderator's explicit authorization. I am sometimes asked to opine about a thread that I am not authorized to see and I explain that I cannot opine because I cannot see into the forum.
Second, private messages are also invisible to anyone other than the sender and recipient.
Finally, although every member must have a working email address in order to join, your email address is used only by the software and is not visible to any other member unless you explicitly update your profile to make it visible.

But "inviolable" is in quotes because, when you come down to it, the software engineers at Backintyme Publishing have the capability of breaking into the site database and extracting literally anything ever stored there. Three circumstances can arise where this might happen, and your privacy might be violated.

First, under a court-ordered subpoena or search warrant, anything recorded in the company's database could be divulged to the authorities.
Second, if Backintyme Publishing were threatened with a lawsuit (libel, slander, copyright violation, federal regulations violation, etc.) consequent to something that a member posted, we would examine the material in order to defend ourselves.
Finally, if any member reported being victimized in a criminal act committed by another member, we would examine the facts in order to report the act to the proper authorities.

fwsweet · Posted: Thu 19 Jul 2007 13:28 Post subject:

More about the last dot-point above. If you get a private message (PM) which seems threatening, or even borderline, do not delete it. Save it. Save it even if you do not anticipate ever reporting it. You never know when a message that now seems only vaguely on the edge might lead to serious stalking or harrassment in the future. In such cases, your not having deleted the original will be extremely important to the authorities.