Agoracom refers to PM communication as "direct and private". While that has only one meaning to us ordinary folks as well as to most lawyers, Agoracom elsewhere makes it clear that it has the right to do what it needs to do , or is legally forced to do , where suspected illegal activity is involved. Clearly that does not cover a fishing expedition by AG for their own purposes . Hopefully, we all share that commonsense covenant.

But there is an even more practical side. Agoracom currently enjoys the utmost degree of trust from its members, at the foundation of which is its own integrity. And, the current tempest aside, anything that would even border on violating that trust and integrity in the area of Privacy would quickly destroy the trust, the goodwill and the business model. Trust is the only real issue at stake here, especially on the NOT forum, where we have had frequent rains of paranoia.

Hopefully, there has been no meaningful situation where an actual Ag employee has contacted a member under the guise of a PM. I cannot imagine that AG would ever knowingly have allowed that to happen, but I am sure a lot of us are reviewing our old Noront PM's in particular due to the animosity around the Board battle, assuming we were not used.

I love this model, it is incredibly powerful with the self-regulation dynamic , and it is built on the ethic of mutual trust. Nothing I have seen has shaken that.