# PMs are accesible by admins if the admin has the link

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/pms-are-accesible-by-admins-if-the-admin-has-the-link/123139
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [July 16, 2019, 10:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/pms-are-accesible-by-admins-if-the-admin-has-the-link/123139 "2019-07-16T22:13:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 7

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### Author: ![supermathie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/supermathie/32/507518_2.png) [@supermathie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/supermathie)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2021, 8:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/pms-are-accesible-by-admins-if-the-admin-has-the-link/123139/7 "2021-12-02T20:26:31Z")

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The best way to do this is with end-to-end encryption, made possible by our [discourse-encrypt](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-encrypt-for-private-messages/107918) plugin.

Admins are _administrators_ of the forum and have access to all of the data. There’s lots of ways for admins to view message contents without it being logged:

- downloading a backup
- [data explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true)
- impersonation
- creating API keys

To fully protect users the best solution is to use encrypted messaging. If you don’t trust your admins, they shouldn’t be admins.

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/pms-are-accesible-by-admins-if-the-admin-has-the-link/123139)._