Confidentiality of private web sites.

[alexia s.]

How can you be sure that the person who creates your web site doesn't read the mails that originate & continue via the site?
The pay sites all have the means to do this - something I have to swallow but find hard to do so - but when you know the person creating the site there is a personal dimension as well.
I presume everyone who creates a site can access it & the mails when they like: mails are sent automatically to the commercial web site when an enquiry is made - how can the advertiser stop this on a personal site?
Does nobody else mind this forced sharing of information?

[accommodation-in-spain]

Hi Alexa

I think what you have to think about here is that if the owners of the commercial site did not monitor mail then you would get spam/fraudulent e-mails and then not be either warned about it or have them blocked. This is a safe-guard for you, the owner. It also obviously is so that the site owner can make sure their site is performing as well as it should be and generating enquiries. These are both plus points from my point of view (speaking as an owner). It is also great if they are caught in your Account area as if your e-mail goes down you can still see your enquiries.

I am not sure what you mean about personal web-sites as there is no way someone (apart from someone hacking into the server my site is on or my e-mail acccount) could view the e-mail generated from my personal web-site. If you have a web-link on your advert and they go to your site through that link all that will show on the commercial site server is that a link was followed but not what enquiry went through your site.

[alexia s.]

Thanks for that, accommodation-in-spain. Is there really no way that the creator of my web-site can build in an access to the mail system which I wouldn't know about? This seems a much easier thing to do (building in a hidden acces to a system you are creating yourself) than hacking into another computer system altogether (any 16 yr old seems to be able to do this).

[Alan Knighting]

Alexia,

Is there really no way that the creator of my web-site can build in an access to the mail system which I wouldn't know about?

If your site is working as your e-mail server (the overwhemling majority are not) then of course there is but all you need do is change the administrator name and password as soon as the site is handed over to you.

Unless he is also an information gathering government official, I do wonder why any site creator would want to maintain access to your site or to your e-mails.

Alan

[alexia s.]

Thanks for this, Alan - I am thinking of personal sites where the property owner is contacted directly by mail from the site. Could the creator of the site not build in a system where the sending of a mail to the owner automatically sent the mail to the original creator?
This is a technical question which is quite beyond me. The ethical question (why anyone would do it) is something I can handle!

[Paul Carmel]

alexia s.

I have to say why would they want to? and what could they gain?

[Alan Knighting]

Alexia,

I take it that you are talking about a purely personal one-off website and not any of the property letting sites.

The answer to your follow-up question is "Yes - but". It could be coded but I think the e-mails would have to be generated from a form and not from a simple link to the sender's e-mail system. Even then, a simple examination of the code on the form's completion and submission page would tell all and the offending bit could be removed.

It's a nice hypothetical question but I think it is a very remote possibility. Also, as a lawyer you will appreciate the next point. If you commission the creation of a personal website you have a contractual relationship with a known person (not a hacker) and if that person is in breach of contract or confidentiality, and generating such copy e-mails would most certainly be a breach of contract and confidentiality, you could sue the socks off him/her.

In a way, if I had a personal website, I would be flattered if someone wanted to steal copies of my enquiries.

Alan

[alexia s.]

Paul and Alan,
If I ask the question(s) it's because I once advertised with a free website whose owner was less than straighforward. When I telephond him to query his practice (blocking enquiries to advertisers who hadn't taken up his offer to rent the properties himself for a commission) he told me about all the enquiries I had had before he introduced the blocking practice. I left the site immediately - I resented his opening my mails & didn't get to the point of asking what he would do with the information they contained. I'd rather know that nobody was reading my mails than have to decide why they were doing it.

[vrooje]

Alexia,

You're right to be concerned, as this is very easy to do.

If I were the administrator of, e.g., alexiasite.com, it would be only a few clicks for me to add in a forward so that a copy of every e-mail addressed to alexia @ alexiasite.com also went to vrooje @ alexiasite.com. And you would never know about it, unless you yourself logged in as the administrator and looked at the mail settings.

I actually do this in a way, though it's the other way around. For the Paris apartment site that I created for a friend, I initially set up the inquiry e-mail the same way I did for our site -- it went to my computer and I checked it. The site owner then asked if those e-mails could be forwarded to him. So I did that, and he answers them all (and I don't see his answers), but what he receives is technically a copy, and the originals still go to the original e-mail address. I don't check it anymore, but it has come in handy for debugging purposes a couple of times. I've always been very up front about that.

However, if someone is doing this and NOT telling you about it, that is really not okay. I'd make it clear with all people I hired to publish a website for me that they were not to do that.

[Alan Knighting]

Alexia,

That doesn't surprise me on a listing site. They will want to gather information for statistical purposes and so that they can answer questions about performance, etc. As is always the case, information can be used for good and bad purposes.

On the same basis:-

• Q. Do you believe in the theory of, if you have nothing to hide you will reveal all?
  Q. Will information gathered always be used for benign purposes?

Or:-

• Q. Do you believe that personal information is confidential?
  Q. Do you question what will be done with your personal information?

On your hypothetical personal website all e-mails are entirely personal to you and your individual correspondent. My attitude would be “m.y.o.b� to anyone else.

Alan

[alexia s.]

Alan,
you know what my answers are to your questions!
Thanks Brooke, too - I thought that would be the case;

[Alan Knighting]

Alexia,

I think I know who you are and I think I know what your answers are.

I also think you know that my questions were not really addressed to you at all.

Brooke is telling you it is easy for your author to cheat you. She's right but I'm telling you it is just as easy to put matters right.

Actually you could amend the coding to send instructions for organ enhancements instead of copies of your enquiries.

Alan

[accommodation-in-spain]

Hi everyone one

Alexa, I am slightly confused (not hard to do )

If you were advertising on a free site then this is not your personal site so the owner of that free site has the right to monitor enquiries etc through their site. The data going through the site is not from you but from a person enquiring to you and he would not be able to see your replies but could monitor out-going messages. This would only be able to be monitored if your enquiries were via a form.

If he wants to block the e-mails to your 'free' advert then he is within his right but to tell you the truth that is the worst business idea I have ever heard of! Not a great way to get customers really is it - no wonder you cancelled straight away.

There is no way he would be able to read any e-mails generated by your 'own' web-site unless you had an e-mail account on his server e.g. say he was working for yiipee.com and you had an e-mail alexa@yiipee.com then yes he would be able to see them if he really wanted to.

If someone bulit you a site (which you have bought the domain name and hosting for personally) then they would only be able to view your e-mails if your e-mails via a form on the site and they set up a copy e-mail to go to them (as said before here) or if they had your password & username for the hosting package - or they could even hack into you e-mail account if they were that good at techinical stuff. Like it was said before, if someone has built you a site and you have paid for that then I cannot see why they would want to do this.

hhhhhmmmm great question though - really gets your brain working

[alexia s.]

Alan (in Spain - are you also in France?),
My basic question was about a private web site set up by a third party.
I'm not being paranoid - truly - I'm just trying to understand how private our mails are. I'm also surprised that so few people are concerned. Why get upset about an identity card or a photo on a driving licence (UK readers) if you don't mind anybody (& the dog - thanks, Paul & Paolo for reminding of the dog) - Why get upset ... if you don't mind anybody & the dog reading your mails? Don't ask me why they do - they do, as my experience with the site I abandoned showed.
Thank you to everyone who has replied. I am making progress. I now know that my mails can be read by a lot of people who haven't had to hack into anything to do so.
Whether or not they would read them is a separate question which I 'm not able to answer.

[Alan Knighting]

Alexia,

Alan (in Spain - are you also in France?)

Which Alan would that be? This one is in France. To avoid any confusion should I change my name to Fluffy?

Fluffy Alan