On Facebook, can my employers or other outsider read my private messages to other FB members?

Question

I know my "open" pages on FB, such as my wall and comments, are out there in public and can be tracked by *anyone* - that's what Facebook is for, after all, and I can't complain if I were to advocate illegal action, and then get the police tracing me. Or if I were to really criticise my employers, they decide to check on what I'm saying, don't like it, and then sack me. But can my employers or the police access my private messages to others? This is what PM's are meant to be - private. Even if I accept the police can access them as part of normal law-enforcement, do my employers have such a right?

? · Accepted Answer

No.

Your employer can't access your private messages.  

If your employer is highly sophisticated and suspicious, it is technically possible that your private messages can be deliberately intercepted as a log of content of all the sites you visit.  This is pretty rare and would require special software and a significant manual effort by your employer.  In many jurisdictions, it might even be illegal to do so, or you might be required to read and sign a waiver of your privacy while using work computers.  

So in many cases it's a privacy violation even if your employer did manage to circumvent the assumption of message privacy -- including if you left yourself logged in and your boss went snooping without your permission.

Within all reasonable likelihood, your private messages are private as they are designed to be.

Anonymous · Answer

As for your employers, they can unless you set your security options so that only friends can see them.

As for the Police, yes they can.

Anonymous · Answer

No they cant...

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On Facebook, can my employers or other outsider read my private messages to other FB members?

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