If someone gave you a hard drive with a folder named 'private', would you look inside?

If someone wanted to keep something private, they aren’t going to mark it private unless they’re completely computer illiterate.

@Blackberry LOL!

@Blackberry Exactly, you would use a folder called prltextsmpl or something.

I wanna say no.

Depends on who this is and how you obtained it… If it was your grandpa who gave you his spare computer and didn’t know any better, I wouldn’t peek around, I would just format the thing and wonder for the rest of my life if grandpa liked to write sappy poetry about kittens.

If it was left by your late paying roommate on a pile of dog turds because he didn’t care and made it your problem, I probably still wouldn’t. But I will warn; if there is something questionable, illegal, or nefarious on it, it is now your problem/possession you just inherited it and can even be liable (or at least have a headache) if there is something like child porn on it.

I agree with @Blackberry but fear that there are more computer illiterates out there than computer literates.

Under normal circumstances if you mount the drive separately it would be untraceable.

Who would’ve guessed that a hard drive could unite sappy poetry, kittens, dog turds, and child porn into a single post. Agree there are definitely things that you wish you could un-see but can’t! That’s you, man in speedos, jogging on the beach!

One time, I was using a former employee’s camera for a work project and noticed that the card said that it was blank, but there were three less images available according to the counter. After the camera was used for some photos and the images were downloaded, the mystery was solved.

Three new images appeared. Two were labeled “Hand” and one “Ring”. Unfortunately, this was during a training session for new hotel inspectors. One of the trainees clicked on the first image, and her computer screen filled with a close-up shot of what I assume to be a former inspector’s hand holding his private bits. The other two were along the same line, and I’ll leave it to your imagination to guess what the ring was.

After that harrowing incident, there is no way I would ever peek into someone’s file marked Private. Not even my SO’s, unless he told me to.

@Pied_Pfeffer Well thanks a lot for THAT visual!! You can shelve that next to the running man in Speedos…~

@wallabies Well, it did make for a great segue for going through the list of “Rules for Hotel Inspectors”. One was, “If you want to have a sleepover, go stay at another hotel chain.”

Reminds me of when my friend got a hold of a series of embarrassing party photos contained within a folder called “Do Not Open”. It just makes people more curious… :P

Who the fu—makes a folder called Do Not Open. That’s worse than Private!! It’s like they want you to see whatever’s in there. I guess they obviously opened it, lol!

@Pied_Pfeffer lol, reminds me of the lady that got workers comp when a light fixture fell on her while she was sleeping with someone in a hotel room on a work trip.

What do you mean by “gave”?—“Here, this is yours now”? or “Would you please take care of this for me until I get back”?

I wouldn’t.

But I must admit that I’d be tempted.

I used to visit a friend I’d known a long while. She lived alone and had a pretty large house with several bedrooms. One room had a sign attached to the door, one of those black-and-gold plates you can buy at the hardware store, that said ”NO ADMITTANCE.” She lived alone and kept a “no admittance” sign posted on one door.

One night there was a party at her house, a lot of people roving around, and I was tempted in the worst way to sneak a peek inside that room. I didn’t try, though. Probably it was locked anyway. I wish I could tell you what was in there. On some level it still itches even though I haven’t seen her in maybe twenty years.

@Jeruba Now you have raised my curiosity. Why didn’t you ask the friend about the sign?

@Pied_Pfeffer, I assumed it meant that she wanted to keep the matter private, and I’ve always respected privacy, anyone’s. I also have a lot of curiosity, so there’s frequently an internal battle when opportunities arise. If I had to guess, I would put my money on some kind of kinky equipment or display.

@Jeruba My mother once told me that she would never snoop around in my personal space and that she expected the same from me. That has stuck with me ever since, and I adhere to this rule.

It wouldn’t stop me from asking a friend who has invited me into their home why they put the sign up. If worded correctly, it would not come across as an intrusion. For a single household dweller to put a sign up like that begs for questioning. Why not just put a lock on the door? When I visit a friend’s house, I would never open a door unless given permission, sign or not, unless I was some sort of EMT and an emergency call came from that house.

No. No good reason to.

No I wouldn’t.

I’d like to say I wouldn’t, and I generally am quite respectful of people’s privacy, but I don’t think I’d be able to resist taking a peek.

Finally someone says they would look! I was beginning to wonder, lol!

Oh, it would be soooo tempting! Unless I had reason to suspect it was something that really needed to be seen by me, though, I wouldn’t do it. It would be really hard not to, though.

I’d like to think I wouldn’t open it, but my curiosity might get the best of me. Best not to tempt me with such an opportunity.