smorris_12 said:
It's an interesting point about messaging. Previously, from a software engineering point of view, "Private" simply meant "Not Public". I rather assumed all messaging was capable of being accessed. It's only in the last few years with things like WhatsApp banging the drum about end-to-end security that anyone probably even considered whether or not messages were visible to site admins. Years ago it would have never occurred to me that encrypting such things was a possibility, and I would never have expected a bit of Freeware like phpBB to do it, if it had.
However, anywhere where the source code can be altered, whether a forum or WhatsApp, inserting a bit of code to intercept a key between two correspondants to allow a bit of snooping (or even just copy the messages prior to encrypting) wouldn't be terribly hard. In the case of WhatsApp etc they are kept in line by the fear they may be found out and a possible actual moral belief in their Ts&Cs. For a two man and a dog forum, no-one would ever know. Which means that, in the end on here, nothing changes - don't post anything on the internet you don't want people to know about!
I wasn't going to address this issue as it wasn't the point of the original post, but seeing how you penned a quite eloquent response I thought I'd also chime in.
You are spot on from a technical perspective, and in almost all aspects of the Internet the person with the "keys" to the hosting account can almost always access all the data in one way or another. That's where there has to be a level of trust... but that's not unique to the Internet:
- You trust your postman not to steal/read your physical mail
- You trust the receptionist at the Doctors with your medical records
- You trust your Mobile Phone provider with your SMS's
- You trust your email provider not to go through your mail (unless you are with Gmail, then they openly do that and sell the data, lol!)
... and the list goes on...
I honestly have no inclination to read people's PM's... it's a car forum not a swinging site, so I doubt it'd be very interesting anyway!
I do however have a duty of care (not necessarily legal duty, but moral) to look out for the members of the forum, and if I get warned of a scammer operating I will look into it and if it looks suspicious I will check their sent PM's. You can usually tell what is suspicious... 10 send PM's but only 3 posts, for example.
. Same old little Lenny…can’t deal with anyone else’s opinion. Time for a nappy change son, you’re obvs chaffing.
