Did you ever look in someone's mail or diary?

Only if they ask me to or I have permission. A couple of months ago, Mom asked me to bring down a box from the attic that contained letters and diaries from her college days (1940s). Since her eyesight is pretty much shot, I read her a few of them based upon her request.

Quite often.

I have an excellent memory, so I remember passwords people gave me 6–7 years ago back in school when we were “best friends 4 evar”.

Some people are stupid enough not to change passwords during the years, forgetting they ever told.
And they use passwords for everything. Facebook, mail, ...

No. I am extremely protective of what I write and it would make me a hypocrite were I to violate someone else’s privacy. The only time I have peeked into someone else’s writings without express permission was when my younger brother left a Word Document open of a story he had written. I hand wrote him an apology letter explaining the situation and went on to tell him what I had liked about his story. He didn’t care, but I ached with guilt over the situation.

Eavesdropping on the other hand…

No, I can’t say that I have.

@Discobitch Why did you do it? Why not tell the people to change their passwords? What was the point of going through their things after so many years?

@free_fallin

Telling them is too much hassle. Like I mentioned, they aren’t smart enough to change them, so addressing them about it will not give me a “thank you, I appreciate your honesty” but accusations.

And why?
Well. See it as data gathering for my ever-continuing analysis of people.

Not even Anne Frank’s.

@Discobitch Have you learned anything useful from your investigations?

@wundayatta

Less than I expected. I was mainly trying to see whether the statement “all people have a dark side” holds.
Right now, I’m convinced it does not, and that some people simply are as one perceives them on the surface.

Observing conversations with best friends and lovers and such seems to push my view in that direction even further.

My daughter had a diary for many years, as a teenager. on many occasions her mother and i had opportunities to open and read her diary. but, we did not. truthfully, we were afraid of what might be written there. she grew up to be a young lady and married. she moved out and along with her went her unread diary.

As her parents, we actually had no reason to read her diary. it was personal. it was her life’s experiences(either good or bad) and it was none of our business to snoop.

Our daughter still has her diary. it’s now in a safety deposit box at her bank. how do we know this? she told us. hmmmmmmmmm maybe we should have taken a sneak peek, yes?

I’ve never done so since I’m protective over having people looking at my drawings so I wouldn’t even think to look at other’s personal things (without permission). If I was given permission then I might consider it depending on how personal it is and who owns it. If it’s something really personal like a diary then I wouldn’t read it unless I was begged to.

Did I ever? Sure, as a child. I can’t even recall the last time that I did that. I’m always curious. But the difference between then and now is that I no longer look.

Yes, I’ve gone through some people’s emails – they confirmed my fears of their betrayal.

I went through my guardian’s lock box (which she’d hidden, but not locked) as a tween. I found the papers regarding my custody transfer and was duly horrified. I couldn’t believe I was the person that those papers were referring to.

I opened a bank statement that was wrongly sent to our address once, just out of curiosity. I did nothing as a result of looking at it, except satisfy my curiosity.

No, I’ve never gone through other people’s mail and/or diary. I never had the urge to either ..lol. Just something I wouldn’t usually think about. I did open someone’s mail once by accident; it was in my mailbox and I opened it without looking at the name or address (a christmas card which I re-sent to the address on the label lol).

Hey, if it is left out or found.

I’ve never known anyone with a diary so no to that. As far as mail goes I did have to go through my mom’s mail last year to figure out what some of our bills were and why they weren’t getting paid. Have I looked at someone’s private email or text mail? Yeah, that’s how I found out a bf of mine was sexting up some “old friend” of his.

I found my sister’s diary when I went to make plans for my Mother’s funeral, and saw something that turned me against her forever. She wrote “Mom is always good for a couple of hundred if I tell her it’s for the kids, now that Jake has custody, I don’t know what story will work. Probably car trouble on visitation day would work.”

She had already taken some money I was saving up for a car and later said she needed it worse than I did, because I had a job and she didn’t.

@YARNLADY Jeez that’s horrible. Was this information you found shocking ..or has your sister always been like that? I mean, if you looked in her diary, you must have had suspicions or something.

@PluckyDog I was not the least bit surprised.

No, that’s rude. Besides I wouldn’t want someone to do the same to me.

When I was a kid I found my mums diary. Even then I remember thinking that I shouldn’t be looking in it but, nevertheless, I took a peak. It was the most boring thing I have ever read!