I understand that what we post in the Forums is searchable on Google. (I have not tried to do this.) So I am wondering how private are Private Messages? Are they also searchable on Google? Can / does anyone else on PC read them? Thank you.

[Calm]

Privacy? In today's world, I'd venture to say privacy hardly exist. Maybe in our homes we may find privacy but doubtful if it exist once we leave our homes or anywhere on the internet. The internet is a free-for-all. It really is sad.

[healingme4me]

PM's aren't to be found through google. However, keep in mind, pm's aren't quite the private things we'd like to think they are.

Sent from my LG-MS910 using Tapatalk 2

Private messages are not indexed by google or other search engines.

In other forums I have been involved in, it is typical for a certain limited number of staff- most often admin only, or sometimes one or two selected higher admin- to have the permissions to read private messages.

However, the frequency with which they do so, in my experience, tends to be very limited. Or should be, in my opinion.

In my experience, the actual occurrence in which PMs are read has been very rare, and only in the interest of safety- when there is great concern for the members involved or where there may be a situation that can only be resolved by reading a message to figure out facts or details of a situation that is unclear.

In my opinion, I would say it is important to have this as a limited permission but to have it only be exercised in a very limited capacity.

Obviously it would be up to the staff of PC to answer for THIS forum, but it is not uncommon for some number of the staff to have permissions to read messages between members. Same goes for chat logs.
The frequency that this is done would depend on the forum and the individual policies of each forum.

[DocJohn]

PMs are not indexed by Google or any other search engine. They are similar in that manner to your email.

PMs are also not viewable by anyone here. We can make an exception if we're served with a court order to do so, but that's about the degree of seriousness we would be looking at in order to violate your privacy. (For the record, in the 13 years I've been running this community, we've had zero court orders or subpoenas.)

Best,
DocJohn