Quote from: Andrew Bitcoiner on September 10, 2012, 01:28:30 AM

Can the mods elaborate on this policy and in what contexts admins may read private messages?

This was touched on here:

Quote from: theymos on August 29, 2012, 05:51:09 PM

Deleted posts are almost never removed from the database. A PM is removed from the database if the sender and all recipients delete it.

Full database backups are created daily, and all global moderators and admins can download the (encrypted) backups and implement their own rotation policies.

Quote from: theymos on August 29, 2012, 06:49:37 PM

Quote from: Bitsky on August 29, 2012, 06:42:57 PM

they can download the backup to have it at multiple locations, but it's useless for them because they don't have the decryption key

This.

Only me, Gavin, Satoshi, and Sirius can decrypt it.

Quote from: theymos on September 09, 2012, 04:14:26 PM

Global moderators can download the encrypted database backups. Admins and past admins (Gavin, Satoshi, Sirius, me, and now justmoon) can decrypt them -- they therefore have complete access to the database and can read PMs, etc. Justmoon and I can also query the live database.

Quote from: theymos on August 30, 2012, 04:50:05 AM

Quote from: imsaguy on August 30, 2012, 04:39:28 AM

Ah, so you're already reading the pms. Good to know. Who else are you snooping through?

I only scanned through them to make sure that the SQL query (to archive them) worked as I intended. The PGP message blocks stood out.

I only read others' PMs without their permission during scam investigations, and I've only read a user's entire inbox a few times.

That thread, starting from this quote tells more on the topic:

Quote from: theymos on August 30, 2012, 03:20:09 AM

Quote from: Chaang Noi (Goat) ช้างน้อย on August 30, 2012, 01:24:15 AM

You are going to make PMs public or give it to the police?

I will give them to the police if the police ask for them. Otherwise, I may post them publicly to help people find Pirate and obtain justice.

Pirates are hostis humani generis. Wink

I'm not going to preserve the privacy of someone who stole 500,000 BTC.

- http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=104261.msg1145182#msg1145182

Since that time was an addition:

Quote from: theymos on September 09, 2012, 01:18:58 AM

Stefan Thomas (justmoon) is now a forum administrator. He can therefore access the database directly and see IP addresses, etc.

And apparently one subtraction:

Quote from: theymos on September 09, 2012, 04:14:26 PM

Quote from: chmod755 on September 09, 2012, 09:52:52 AM

How many admins do we have on bitcointalk now?

Two. Gavin recently decided to stop being an admin.

The cautionary statement added to the bottom when you send a PM was requested here:

Quote from: theymos on August 30, 2012, 11:59:29 PM

Quote from: HeavyMetal on August 30, 2012, 10:37:50 PM

Legality aside, decency would suggest you should put a notice on the "private message" page stating that the messages are not private and may be read by moderators.

They're "personal messages", not "private messages". Wink

I think it's obvious that the administrators of a site will check PMs when necessary, but I added a note to the page.

[Edited: Added some additional references]