[T3MEDIA]

Originally Posted by ixian

I do respect that, and I appreciate his work. That has nothing to do with the issue at hand - as a coder, I would think he would appreciate feedback on his hack good or bad as long as it is constructive and not mere message board flaming. My opinion is that these requirements - either linking back here or having an existing privacy policy that in the sole opinion of the coder, who is not an attorney, is an acceptable substitute is not acceptable to me. I feel this entire "read members private messages" debate is net-lawyerism at it's worst and this kind of requirement is reacting too far in the other direction to it.

That said, it's my own opinion, and the coder can do what he or she wishes. I'm not implying he should change his hack because of it - that's an informed decision only he can make.

Its old but this was very well put ixian.

Just so people know it is actually a breach in privacy to have the users come to vbulletin.org with out them knowing. This would be more damaging for the admin than reading the PM. As well the protection is for only 1 party who will never see this notice that is the person who wrote the PM. The person who recieves it reliqishes the right once they consider it abuse or spam. OBVIOUSLY it must be reviewed.

Does vb.org have a statment stating this will uccour to guests from differnt sites and how will thier private information be handled? Does anyone on any site using this hack state that vb.org may or may not get specific types of information? Is the privacy aggreement for vb.org and (whoever you are) are in syc with one another to co exist legally with this idea.

So its not really ad-ware its more inadvertant spy-ware. (please ignore my bad spelling. English is not my first lanugage but I am learning). Please note I put inadvertant... I am aware its not the purpose of the hack.

If you use this logic used to protect members you would have to have a notice saying if you use it your information may or may not be given to third parties.

vb (all vb) records ip, referer and sessions. This is the major flaw having vb.org involved in private messages. But I just wanted to say that. this is old news but just so people understand.

(think about it. Once a guest hits this page and an admin reviews it they now know)
1. This user comes from x website (its vb, its a 3.5.x site and there is a cookie left) so This user is a member of x website (100% sure)
2. This user was previously reading a PM
3. This user uses whatever browser and speaks whatever lanuage. (OS system as well)
4. This user had (whatever is in your copy and paste space) saved
5. This user just had spam or an abusive message.

I could now email the owner of that site about some new spam blocker for vb or use google adwords to market to the users about more secure websites that are simular to thiers. "Are you tired of forum spam?". (advertise on this site method)

That is off the top of my head. I dont think anyone is using this that way but hey... if you want to be legal do it all the way.