# Can we prevent an admin from seeing a private category?

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-we-prevent-an-admin-from-seeing-a-private-category/183458
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 16, 2021, 9:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-we-prevent-an-admin-from-seeing-a-private-category/183458 "2021-03-16T21:37:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 2

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### Author: ![simon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/simon/32/339122_2.png) [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2021, 9:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-we-prevent-an-admin-from-seeing-a-private-category/183458/2 "2021-03-16T21:41:31Z")

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> [@Wall-E](#):
>
> As the admin of our self-hosted instance, can I create a private category for a group, and offer them complete privacy so that I am not able to see what they post?

No, the only thing I am aware of to prevent admins from reading content on the site is to encrypt PMs with [Discourse Encrypt (deprecated)](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-encrypt-for-private-messages/107918). Otherwise, site admins are able to access the site’s database, so there would be no point in attempting to hide content from them.

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