by Rod_outbak » 10 Dec 2018, 10:23 am
It's safe to assume that everything you write on the net, is likely accessible by people other than your intended recipients...
It's been that way since the internet first became public-access (in the early 1990's??).
And yes; I can appreciate that a PM would be considered to be 'private', but the fact that the message is being stored on someone else's computer network without any binding relationship to you, means that this was going to happen at SOME stage.
With these new data-encryption access laws that have just been passed, it's only going to get more so.
It's why social media continues to freak me out; people pour their lives into it, and then their personal details start leaking out all over the place!
You MIGHT have some better chance at keeping data private if you are paying for a service that guarantees a level of data privacy (like cloud accounting services), but even they arent totally private, and are obligated to hand data over to the feds if they get a tap on the shoulder.
[And besides; NOT a lot of people send many PM's through their cloud accounting access!]
We all gave up a LOT of our privacy, when we embraced the internet, and privacy laws are over 2 decades behind the technology.
With the continuing hysteria about terrorism, I reckon we will lose even more privacy in the next few years.
Over 10 years ago, there were multiple court cases around the world, where company employees discovered that ANY emails they sent from their work email account were deemed to be company property.
The company provided the equipment, the server, the software and the internet access for the emails to be sent, and so the emails were deemed to be company property. It really didnt go well for employees who had been [privately] slagging off at the boss.
[Not saying I 100% agree with this, but I'm using it as an example of how nothing we write on the net has been truly private for a long time..]
So, my thought is to always consider/assume that everything you write, is going to be read by people who arent sympathetic towards your point of view.; regardless of how private you think the conversation is.
Secondly, I remember a story about a village idiot(Nicknamed Kerro) who used to frequent the Lyceum Hotel in Longreach, and was waxing lyrical one night about all the fish he'd illegally netted in a creek somewhere. He gets a tap on the shoulder from the local DPI Fisheries inspector(a rather overzealous sort), who tells this idiot he's nicked.
Kerro tells this guy to piss off.
Fisho says "Do you KNOW who I am?? I'm the local fisheries inspector!"
Kerro replies with "Well, do you KNOW who I am?? I'm the biggest liar in Longreach!"
At this point, Mr Fisho comes to the horrid realisation that he's got NO evidence at all on the crimes this guy has SAID he'd committed, and Fisho had to walk away.
If you think an offhand comment in a PM is going to be enough evidence alone for anyone to put you in front of a judge, then you must have some interesting friends!
My 2 cents...
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Sharing the extreme love with cats in Outback QLD