Private Message guildelines

It is explicitly not our Policy to monitor Private Messages (PMs) between site members. However our Private Message system should not be automatically assumed to be private. It is a condition of use of the Private Message system that you consent to such access being monitored by authorised HTP Staff in the following exceptional circumstances:

• Investigations into alleged or suspected unlawful behaviour, criminal or civil action and for the purpose of grievances.
• Where required by regulatory or investigatory bodies empowered to request such monitoring.
• For court or other legal proceedings.
• Where there is an urgent need to retrieve a message sent to a Private Message Inbox in the absence of the owner.
• For system diagnostic/debugging purposes.

Private messages are called "private" because the sender of the message often wants to keep the content private between himself and the receiver. In these cases, we ask the recipients of PMs to respect this, and to not publish the content of PMs on public forums without the consent of the sender.

In the case where content of private messages are quoted on the public forums, the HTP moderating team withholds the right to remove these quotes if one of the parties involved asks to do so.

All rules that apply to public posts also apply to private messages. If the receiver of a PM feels that the sender has broken these rules, he or she is asked to report this by forwarding the PM to a member of the moderating team, and not by quoting the PM on the public forums. 

The complaints will be dealt with in confidence, so forwarding the PM to a moderator will not be considered making the PM public.