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Comment by fangorn | Hacker News Reader

Was it legal "to take a closer look and see the links they are sharing"?

Absolutely. Nicer if you disclose it in your terms of service but data inspection should be considered the norm unless you explicitly agree otherwise. And even then, if it isn't encrypted with a key that only you control then you should still assume your comms are being read.

Illegal not to, in this day and age. Websites are held responsible for user-generated content.

I have no idea but it should be because that's basic troubleshooting. I once discovered a pedophile network by troubleshooting their server by looking at its traffic.

Why do you think it could be illegal?

The ToS also includes this:

> You represent and warrant that: […] the Content will not or could not be reasonably considered to be obscene, inappropriate, defamatory, disparaging, indecent, seditious, offensive, pornographic, threatening, abusive, liable to incite racial hatred, discriminatory, blasphemous, in breach of confidence or in breach of privacy; […]

For which they obviously need to look at the data.

That doesn't imply they are looking at the data during regular operation. That just means that the user is liable for breach of contract if they post noncompliant links. The first point in time where the admin really has to look at the data would be during the discovery phase of the corresponding lawsuit between operator and customer.

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