My husband is on another message board where they are having a bit of controversy over suspicions of moderators reading pms between members (and then allegedly banning one based on the contents), and it got me wondering if moderators or administrators read pms here. Is there any circumstances where mods or admins would read pms, if it is something that is not usually done? Would it be considered a violation of privacy laws for mods or admins to read private messages? Can they even read them?
I don’t think we can. I certainly don’t know how. And if we could, I’m quite sure we wouldn’t.
It’s not, as far as I know, an ability built in to the vB software that drives the board. However, PMs, like the rest of the board content, are stored in a database. Anyone with access to this database and an understanding of its structure could peek at them, and with a little knowledge about PHP programming, could fairly easily write a routine to make that ability available to whomever they choose to have it. So, possible, yes. Routinely done? Probably not, IME.
We have no access to your private messages.
And even if we did, geez, there’s not enough hours in the day to do all the things we need to do, let alone wonder what you’re up to in private messages.
As a point of technical information, it takes about 60 seconds for a PHP coder to write a simple routine to read PMs. About 10 minutes to write one that allows searching through them by member(s) for text strings.
As QED says, it is not, AFAIK, a built-in function. But one that is trivially added.
Edited: And as TubaDiva says, they have no access in this version either…
Hmm, interesting. It isn’t done here (or say you say {ominous voice}), but it wouldn’t be hard to write a little code to do so. The other message board where they are having this “issue,” I don’t think they’re the kind of people to start writing routines, but who knows?
Thanks for all the info.
I’ll have you know that my private messages are worth their weight in gold. 
OK, so they downloaded a plug-in script that someone else wrote. If Una can write one in ten minutes, then someone else can, too, and a lot of those someone elses probably like sharing their work.
Or it could just be idiots on the Internet making baseless accusations about supposedly Nazi moderators. That happens, too.
Yep. It took about 6.7 seconds of Googling to find one.
As far as this Board goes, I am absolutely confident that the Staff do not read anyone’s PMs other than their own.
Heck, I have it on good authority some moderators don’t even read their OWN PMs, let alone those belonging to others. I understand how that goes myself, I’m not always cognizant of that little notice in the corner of the screen. (I do get to it . . . sooner or later.)
Then you’re safe. Nobody will read them unless they’re worth their weight in chocolate.
Hey, I don’t get no steenkin’ little notice in the corner of my screen. What gives? 
In your case it says -
Private Messages: Unread 0, Total 0.
Hey, mine says that, too. How come I’m getting samclem’s PM notice?
He swapped his for yours.
For what it’s worth, I didn’t even realize that there was such a thing as Private Messages until a few months ago… when my Private Message folder was filled up.
[sub]No, I didn’t read the old ones.[/sub]
Twenty dollars can buy many peanuts.
Stranger and stranger. I get PMs all the time. From dopers.
But, I’ve never noticed a “notice” in the corner of any screen. I just get an email in my normal personal email box at sclements@neo.rr.com and then I reply.
Am I missing something?
Top left corner of the screen:
Welcome, Q.E.D…
You last visited: Today at 09:05 PM
Private Messages: Unread 1, Total 17.