# Impersonating a user **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature\ **Tags:** impersonate\ **Created:** [18 בפברואר,‏ 2018,‏ 4:29am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/impersonating-a-user/80862 "2018-02-18T04:29:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1
**Author:** ![Biscuit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/biscuit/32/94482_2.png) [@Biscuit](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Biscuit)\ **Post date:** [18 בפברואר,‏ 2018,‏ 4:29am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/impersonating-a-user/80862/1 "2018-02-18T04:29:11Z")
I clicked impersonate a user, as they requested assistance and I wanted to see what access they had. I also wanted to understand how impersonate a user worked and what it’s used for. I expected to simply see the same screen options that user would see, but was surprised when the screen displayed a draft of a post they were writing. It was an innocent post, but I didn’t feel comfortable seeing this work in progress & tried to exit immediately to respect their privacy. But I didn’t know how! I closed the browser, but when I returned to the site, it opened as the impersonated user again. I ended up logging out as that user, without knowing if I was also logging out the real user. The lack of “EXIT” button during impersonation was discussed in this thread in 2014: [https://meta.discourse.org/t/impersonating-user-and-then-returning-to-admin/19382](https://meta.discourse.org/t/impersonating-user-and-then-returning-to-admin/19382) **Feature suggestions:** 1. Display a confirmation message when someone clicks impersonate providing an indication of what’s involved, as it’s a serious action to take. 2. Add an obvious Exit or Stop Impersonating button. 3. If you don’t want to do #2 above, consider displaying a banner at the top saying something like: _“Currently impersonating User XXXXX - (take this action) to stop impersonating”_ There’s currently no UI guidance about how to exit impersonation. --- _[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/impersonating-a-user/80862)._