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New conspiracy theory!! P.M.'s are being moderated now??

I Sperg

Over Christmas, I got first moderated to death for posting a wholesome christmas message, then whilst trying to P.M. a forum member this little beauty pops up...

This is a little too orwellian for me to stomach. P.M.s are personal or private messages by their very definition, and should be mostly unavailable to third parties. 

Also we seem to have a culture of "Silent Accusers" generally developed in this country where people can make accusations against you and trigger "lawfare" without you ever being told who they are, or even the copy of the accusation that has been laid to "authority" made available to you.

There have been quite a few posts that illustrate this if you are aware of and see it as a problem.

Although I've grown quite "fond" of some of you, I've also previously adminstered one forum on the same platform as the alternative to this one and I knw that over there my personal mesages are only going to be read by the recipients and not some third party who might find them triggering or offensive and institute sanctions against me without my knowledge. As currently happens to me every single holiday when the mods are off now....

The internet is already NOT a safe place for people like me, I prefer a forum which doesn't metaphorically have "A wiretap on my phone".

Did you consent to having your PM's overseen routinely?

Parents
  • I Sperg said:
    Did you consent to having your PM's overseen routinely?

    I had a quick look at the rules:
    https://community.autism.org.uk/p/rules

    User agreement
    By joining the Online Community, you agree that the moderation team has the authority to edit or delete content and to suspend or delete accounts that violate the rules.

    It doesn't specify that the content is on the forum or private messages so it can be assumed that everything is covered by this rule.

    I don't see any "right to privacy" clauses so it is therefore logical that there is none.

    My interpritation of what a "private message" is in these circumstances is that is it not published publically.

    I think we are assuming a lot about what private should mean here, but given the potentially vulnerable people here, there is no doubt a case that "snooping" by moderators is permissable to identify exploitation, abuse etc.

    This is a free service after all and these rarely have any "rights" with them, just as with any other free platform.

    Most will mine your email, search history, browser history etc and use this for advertising leads (ie they make money selling the info). I don't see this site exploiting us this way but from the safeuarding aspect I think it is entirely appropriate.

  • in reply to Iain

    I respectfully disagree, Iain. We are all adults with a right to privacy, we can choose whether to accept PMs or not, and there is the option to report people who send anything abusive - whether in the main forum or in a personal message.

Reply Children
  • in reply to Lotus
    Lotus said:
    We are all adults with a right to privacy,

    I would agree under normal circumstances, but there is no explicit contract with the company to this when we sign up for the site and we are also classed as vulnerable adults in their eyes, so are not really seen as capable adults for the purpose of safeguarding.

    Andy said:
    looking at the safety and security section it does say that private messages are “fully private”…

    There is no definition about what "fully" means in this context so it could simply mean it is not visible to the public. The subtleties of the legal wording are important so lets look under the hood a bit:

    From the link you kindly sent:

    https://autism.org.uk/legal-information/privacy-notice
    under the section:
    What we use your personal information for

    There are several categories here that I think give them a clear case for being able to access your messages:
    1 - in our, or a third party’s, legitimate interests

    If their legitimate interest is stopping exploitation of a vulnerable person by a predator or the planning of an insurrection of the government then they can make any number of justifications.

    2 - it is necessary for the purposes of providing support

    If a poster has exhibited concerning self harming behaviour and someone has been messaging them telling them to end it all then they could easily justifty an intervention by proving this.

    3 - it is necessary for a purpose designed to protect the public against dishonesty, malpractice or other seriously improper behaviour

    Think if somene was trying to sell "medication" that is illegal to people who have a serious issue, or were grooming someone for exploitation then these would all give grounds for such access.

    The thing is there is no legal protection because of the way everything is worded, and this is entirely normal for websites such as this discussion forum.

    We can think we should have a right to privacy but it doesn't take much to demonstrate that this is not the case.

    For the record I neither support of condone the situation here - I'm just looking it from a factual perspective and the "norm" in the industry.