on line forum laws ( private messages )
Hi everyone, just joined.
My question is. I was a member on an open biking forum of which offered a private message service between members. Before using this service I asked the admin on an open post if this indeed was true and are our private messages ( private ) of which they replied yes and they had no access to them. Several weeks later and after sending many messages some of which contained personal information it became apparent that my messages were being read by the admin team, I confronted them on this matter via an open post and was very quickly banned from the site and no longer have access. They emailed me admitting that they dont openly admit that they have access to peoples private messages and said i was being disruptive!!! Now i am very concerned that my personal information and possibly many others on the forum could be used for illegal reasons. Maybe I am being paranoid about this but can anyone tell me where I stand, can they do this legally, and what would be my next course of action.
Many thanks in advance.... jim
We need to look first at the
We need to look first at the site's terms and conditions to establish the basis of membership.
If you let me know the site I can have a look for you.
thank you it would be much
thank you it would be much appreciated.. the site is www.yamahar1.co.uk
Jim
The rules for this forum can
The rules for this forum can be found here.
http://www.yamahar1.co.uk/apps/forum/forum.php?rules
You would be deemed to have accepted these rules when you signed up.
They are somewhat ambiguous but you will see that " member's e-mails" can only be monitored or diclosed in certain circumstances.
It is not entirely clear but this could include your personal information which presumably was delivered to the forum by e-mail in the first place.
If the owners breach these rules they will be liable to you.
I suggest that you now contact the owner, ask him to remove all your information held by the site and demand a specific confirmation that this has been done.
many thanks for taking a look
many thanks for taking a look at the site and rules, but if the administration states in an open post for all members to read that the emails are not read then surely he is breaking a law of some description ?? When one becomes a member on the forum the only information given is email address and name, anything else is optional.
My concern is the emails that i have sent over the last few months that have contained personal financial details have been clearly read and in my mind there is something very wrong with that, how do i know what they may have done with it ?? I only sent these emails with this information after being reassured by the administration that our emails were indeed private.
I would appreciate any further advice you can give me.
Once again thank you for taking the time to look into this for me...
Jim
Jim
The rules do not mention
The rules do not mention private e-mails specifically.
They mention ,as I said,"member's e-mails".
That definition must therefore include in my opinion private e-mails.
If those e-mails are monitored etc in breach of the rules then you would have a claim. In the absence of any loss the damages would be minimal but you would probably get an order that the e-mails should be deleted together with an injunction to prevent dissemination of the information.
You mention a post which may sought to vary the rules but I would have to see that before advising on it's effect.
I still think the best course of action here is my suggestion contained in the last paragraph of my previous post.
Thank you very much you have
Thank you very much you have been very helpful.
I have copied the post that I mentioned and can show you if that helps.
Very impressed with the forum.
Jim
Jim