Moderator have access to user's PII, for the sake of moderation activities.
Can a regular user request at any moment to know when and if moderators of a given community have accessed their PII?
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4As far as I know, no. They can not. Source: am moderator.– MastCommented Feb 13 at 19:15
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2All direct access to PII should be logged, but some instances could be hard to discover (like if they shared your IP address with other moderators in a moderator only chat room). You probably wouldn't be able to get an alert in real time, but it could be figured out after the fact.– ColleenVCommented Feb 13 at 19:27
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10The OP is a moderator as well, @Mast - I think the question is more if such a request would be honored by staff by or not.– MithicalCommented Feb 13 at 20:04
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2For context, on Wikipedia, users with the right to check others' PII are allowed to tell the user that they were checked, but aren't required to.– Sonic the Anonymous HedgehogCommented Feb 13 at 20:30
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1@Mithical It's phrased as a question, but I suspect it's more of a feature request actually. Since there is no policy on telling users any of this currently.– MastCommented Feb 13 at 20:36
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Second implied question here might be "when does that access information get deleted?" 99% of the time I'm looking at PII to see their source IP (is it a sock or perhaps an accidental dupe user) and email address (is it a throwaway, does it match a pattern) and often that leads to deletion.– CriggieCommented Feb 14 at 0:08
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12I don't have a general case answer, but I do feel compelled to say that if you (or anyone) think a moderator has misused their privileged access to PII for any reason, please send in a support email. That's something we would definitely like to look into.– Slate StaffModCommented Feb 14 at 0:55
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@Slate - I assume you meant "want to" look into? "like to" can carry a connotation that you're hunting for moderator overreach. At least, that's how I first read it...– RobotnikCommented Feb 16 at 4:23
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2@Robotnik Er, not sure how it can be read that way... I just want to encourage people to report misuse of PII access - investigations like that don't make me happy, but they need to happen...– Slate StaffModCommented Feb 16 at 15:23
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3 Answers
You can't trivially request to check when a moderator requested to view your PII. Even for someone with moderator privileges, or staff with moderator privileges or higher levels of access, they'd need to go into your user history, set appropriate filters, and then look it up. There's no end user way to do it.
If you have a legitimate reason to suspect inappropriate access to PII, you might want to raise an appropriate escalation at a level of site administration you believe you can trust.
If you believe a moderator has inappropriately accessed your PII then you can use the contact link, explain your potential issue, and get staff to investigate.
answered Feb 13 at 23:32
No. The system does not provide any way for regular (non-moderator) users to access this.
You can always contact a CM (using the "contact" link at the bottom of every page) and request it from them. It's up to them what they'd allow. None of us can speak for them. My expectation is they will say no. If you really want to know whether there will grant your request, there is no need to ask here first -- just send your request and see what happens.
As the question is general, the answer should be general, too:
People can make reasonable requests at any time, but that doesn't mean the response will fulfill the request, as the responder might resolve with a negative, ideally reasonably and kindly. Ideally, people should not be afraid to make reasonable requests and ask for help, i.e., to make a request properly to the corresponding agent.
Ideally, the responder to a request to know if someone has accessed their PII should analyze the merits of the request and respond according to the company policies. In the case of community moderators accessing PII, the responder should respond considering, among other things, the moderator agreement and the company's compliance policy concerning government, voluntary regulations and corresponding standards. Usually, these "rules" are broad and require the responder to make judgment calls.
A request like this without merits will likely have a negative response, ideally reasonably and kindly. As this kind of request isn't a "fast food order," it's normal for the resolution of this kind of request to take some time, so if you submit a request like this, please accept this into consideration and be patient.
