Snoop!

[greenfreak]

Are you a snoop? I think I'm becoming one. And being a Network Administrator really makes it worse. There's all sorts of things I monitor, how people are using network traffic, guarding against personal or offensive materials, non-business use of applications, etc. I'm one of three people who have the rights (and sometimes the responsibility) to read every email, every document in this company. Although I don't, there's definitely a potential for abuse.

About 10 years ago, my best friend was seperated from her husband. The three of us worked together, and she suspected that he had a girlfriend. So one day, while he was out of the office somewhere, she asked me to look through his personal organizer. I found a female's name and phone number that my friend didn't recognize and she "looked into it". I don't know how, but he found out it was me, and from that point on, I vowed not to do something like that again. And never get in between two people like that.

Are you a snoop? A voyeur? How far have you gone in regards to snooping? Have you ever get caught?

 

[HomeLAN]

Not generally. I've got to have a fairly serious reason to perform what I consider a major privacy violation, and very few scenarios meet that standard. That said, my job, like yours, sometimes demands that I go poking around where I otherwise wouldn't. I'm also the HR dude around here, which means I guard everybody else's personal info like a daddy bear protecting a cub.

 

[Uki Chick]

I never really considered myself a snoop, but I will admit to snooping occasionally. I did it to my ex a couple of times to check up on certain things. I didn't really get caught, I confessed to it. There are a few things he didn't know about though.

It's part of being a human being at times I think. Especially when things aren't right, especially in a relationship and things are being questioned.

 

[A.B.Normal]

 

[Luis G]

I used to do that when I had an incredible low self-esteem. Now other people's private stuff is completely irrelevant to me, it actuall was before but I still had this vouyeur need so I could know if they were full of BS or not.

 

[greenfreak]

Then I can assume you never look at the "Who's Online" page?

 

[HomeLAN]

That's a little different from reading someone's e-mail.

 

[Dave]

i am the ultimate snoop. i pry into just about every detail about a person and will grill friends/family when warranted. i have to know everything.
then i go home and couldnt give a damn about what anyone did/said.

 

[PT]

I've looked through my sig others purse a couple times, monitor the computers at home for what the kids are doing, and incedentally then what the wife is doing. Can't say the computer thing is something I enjoy, more obligated. The purse thing was becuase I had a pretty good reason to suspect already, wasn't just a fishing expedition.

 

[Winky]

had a pretty good reason to suspect already,

Of What?

 

[HomeLAN]

I will be checking after V2.0 on the machines, but that meets the standard. Howeverm he's my kid: he has no resonable expectation of privacy from me.

I have never gone into my wife's purse. She could be keeping Jimma Hoffa in there for all I know, and I really don't care. I also don't touch her computer or open mail addressed to her.

 

[catocom]

Then I can assume you never look at the "Who's Online" page?

There's a hack for vBulletin so an admin can read PMs.
I though about installing it on my board, then I just couldn't bring
myself to do it. No-one would have known, but I still have to live with "myself".

If I work for a company, and it was my job to do stuff like that,
I'd probably follow the guidelines like HL was saying.

 

[greenfreak]

That's a little different from reading someone's e-mail.

That was meant for Luis because he seems to feel very strongly about it. It was more of a joke.

You're right, it's different. But it could be one link in a chain of snooping. It was one of the reasons I chose to go the "invisible" route. Because someone here was watching the Who's Online page, and then inquiring on why I was reading certain older threads.

 

[greenfreak]

There's a hack for vBulletin so an admin can read PMs.

The first time I found out about that was on JJR512. I promptly deleted all my PM's.

I guess if you assume you have no privacy the minute you connect to the internet, you're probably closer to the truth.

 

[Winky]

It isn't snoopin' if it's in your job description.
Being observant shall we say vigilant isn't snooping.

snooping implies invasion of privacy

 

[chcr]

The first time I found out about that was on JJR512. I promptly deleted all my PM's.

I guess if you assume you have no privacy the minute you connect to the internet, you're probably closer to the truth.

You really didn't have any before you connected to the internet. That said, as sysadmin I track e-mail usage and block most web access.

 

[Luis G]

That was meant for Luis because he seems to feel very strongly about it. It was more of a joke.

Was that the impression? It is more in the area of I don't care about it if I look and I don't care if I don't look either.

 

[greenfreak]

I was going to tell you a work story about something that I found on a pc years ago but remembered I already did.

This guy still works for the company, and every single time I have to deal with him, I think of it.

 

[samcurry]

As a sysadmin, I do what i have to when i have to. Otherwise im not interested and just dont have the time.

Oh and i was like cat. i thought about installing that hack, but just couldnt do it.

 

[JJR512]

The hack is completely unnecessary.

Private messages are stored in the database in plain-text format, just as are regular messages (posts). Anyone who can access the database, such as the owner of the webhosting account, can go into the appropriate table and look inside. The hack, I assume, makes it easier to do this, and probably lets some people who can't access the database directly be able to do it (people like administrators).

I know that, by posting this, some people are automatically and irreversibly going to assume that I did this kind of thing all the time. To the rest of you, all I can say is that I never snooped on anyone in this way. I only know this because, as someone who was at one time a fairly well-respected developer of add-on enhancement for vBulletin, I had to know in great detail the ins and outs of the database and how it worked. I did look in the private messages table once, at one of my own records, to see how it was laid out. I was working on a PM-related enhancement at the time.

But, my point to everyone is this: Remember what greenfreak said, that basically privacy online is largely an illusion. Even without the hack, your PMs here are not beyond snoopage, or anywhere else. If you use a message board like this place and must send a message to another member that you absolutely do not want the board's staff to possibly be able to access, don't send it through that message board! Use email or IM instead.