# Are community DMs private?
**URL:** https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/are-community-dms-private/83550
**Category:** Help
**Created:** [January 22, 2019, 2:24am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/are-community-dms-private/83550 "2019-01-22T02:24:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@rg305](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/rg305)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2019, 2:24am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/are-community-dms-private/83550/1 "2019-01-22T02:24:40Z")
While using [community.letsencrypt.org](http://community.letsencrypt.org), are direct messages treated as completely private?
Or is the Internet able to crawl through them - completely public?
[yes I am a ‘binary extremist’ (sounds better than an ‘whole number absolutist’)]
[feel free to reply with an adequate amount of grayscale applied - or any amount of humor (sarcasm preferred)]
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### Author:  [@\_az](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/_az)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2019, 2:26am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/are-community-dms-private/83550/2 "2019-01-22T02:26:25Z")
They are not private in that administrators can read them.
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### Author:  [@rg305](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/rg305)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2019, 2:27am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/are-community-dms-private/83550/3 "2019-01-22T02:27:21Z")
So not 100% private…
But can they be crawled?
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### Author:  [@jsha](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/jsha)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2019, 2:51am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/are-community-dms-private/83550/4 "2019-01-22T02:51:01Z")
They cannot be crawled, because they are not available without authentication.
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### Author:  [@rg305](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/rg305)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2019, 2:52am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/are-community-dms-private/83550/5 "2019-01-22T02:52:39Z")
Ok that is good (expected) news.
But to clarify some more…
Can any (random) authenticated user see messages they have NOT been included in?
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### Author:  [@jsha](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/jsha)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2019, 2:52am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/are-community-dms-private/83550/6 "2019-01-22T02:52:53Z")
Nope, they cannot. Only administrators.
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2019, 2:52am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/are-community-dms-private/83550/7 "2019-02-21T02:52:57Z")
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