# Privacy plugin that makes it more difficult for admins to read PMs **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature\ **Tags:** personal-messages\ **Created:** [June 6, 2017, 9:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/privacy-plugin-that-makes-it-more-difficult-for-admins-to-read-pms/64059 "2017-06-06T21:00:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 7
**Author:** ![tophee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/tophee/32/73406_2.png) [@tophee](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tophee)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 11:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/privacy-plugin-that-makes-it-more-difficult-for-admins-to-read-pms/64059/7 "2017-06-06T23:29:31Z")
Hm, you seem to be right. I think when I read this, I simply assumed that this has meanwhile been implemented: > [@codinghorror](#): > > access to a user’s personal data by an admin should always leave a very visible audit trail. > > I think that’s a fine requirement and one that Stack Exchange has moved toward strongly – you can view personal stuff like a user’s email address but it takes an explicit click to do so, and it is also logged as a staff action in that user’s profile. Sounds good to me! We don’t have this yet, though, and we need it for a broad spectrum of staff actions including both moderator stuff (I banned this user) and admin stuff (I changed this setting). But while an audit trail would be good, I don’t think it could replace the plugin proposed here. They are complementary. The logic of the audit trail is that of the [panopticon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon): it disciplines people because they know that they can be watched so they have to assume that they are always watched. The logic of the plugin is more like the requirement in organizations that a payment order always has to be signed by two people or, well, disallowing moderators to read PMs (which is already implemented), or perhaps like locking your car even though you can see it from the kitchen window. --- _[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/privacy-plugin-that-makes-it-more-difficult-for-admins-to-read-pms/64059)._