Keep Private Groups and Comments PRIVATE

aalley5

Is MFP aware that private group posts are no longer private? This makes a whole new world for groups where members are no longer able to be candid about experiences. It also opens the door to abuse personal information.

durden

This is the news to me. Please send us a support case with any/all relevant information you have so we can investigate.

To reach our support team for assistance, please visit https://myfitnesspal.zendesk.com/hc/en-us or email directly to support@myfitnesspal.com

Thanks!

durden

Chiming in again; i've done some testing around your private group's posts, and am confident that even if you have a public activity feed, that private group posts do not show up, period.

If anyone is seeing any different, please feel free to send a support request per the above with ATTN: Durden in the subject line (or not, it'll get to me eventually) with screenshots or other evidence I can use to investigate. As of right now, having personally checked this myself with multiple accounts, i'm not seeing what you're seeing.

aalley5

I'm wondering if this was before you were sent the screenshots or after.

durden wrote: »

Chiming in again; i've done some testing around your private group's posts, and am confident that even if you have a public activity feed, that private group posts do not show up, period.

If anyone is seeing any different, please feel free to send a support request per the above with ATTN: Durden in the subject line (or not, it'll get to me eventually) with screenshots or other evidence I can use to investigate. As of right now, having personally checked this myself with multiple accounts, i'm not seeing what you're seeing.

Adventurista

@durden - i took screenshots this morning and sent the screenshots with it happening in 2 situations: with a friend and with someone who is NOT a friend.

I can see their posts in their MFP community publicly shared profile replies in both: private groups we are both members and in their private groups that i am not in.

Adventurista

@durden

to add... if i click on the reply shown in their list of profile replies.... it does not take me into that private group. I get the 'permission problem' error.

b3achy

If anyone selects / flags insightful, inspiring, like, or hug, you can then see part of those posts on someone's profile if you click on those reactions even if it was done in a private group. If you click on the post, you get permission denied, but it does expose the first few lines of the post in the activity feed.

Adventurista

b3achy wrote: »

If anyone selects / flags insightful, inspiring, like, or hug, you can then see part of those posts on someone's profile if you click on those reactions even if it was done in a private group. If you click on the post, you get permission denied, but it does expose the first few lines of the post in the activity feed.

Ok, so maybe this is the underlying trigger for the reply posts I can read in their community replies list...

The posts I can see are fewer than i would anticipate from the active people i can view.

@durden

@b3achy

Ps, eta - i am on android phone, using website .com version. Not the ap.

Adventurista

@durden

We experimented just now, and the replies are not limited to like, hugs, inspiring type flags.

This afternoon, i can see many more replies for people who are in a private group that i am not in.

Again, when i click on the comment to read more, i get the 'permission error' so i can't actually read entire lengthy comments nor can i read the whole chat thread in those private groups.

DNjoys

I too am using the web as I don't use my phone for Internet, if that makes a difference. I was horrified at what I saw exposed when clicking on "replies" in people's Activity Profiles that were excerpts (if not the entire post) of posts made on PRIVATE teams over the past several days. The idea that ANYONE can see and read posts that were made on a private team where those expressing themselves believed only members of that team could see them is a total breach of trust. I've already resigned as team leader and plan to leave MFP permanently by the end of the year as my commitments come to a close.

If you truly are unaware of this happening and would view it as an issue to be fixed, that changes everything. I have gone to Activity Profiles of top leaders and read things that no one should have access to - info from private planning teams where they were discussing a member they were having issues with, and other issues with their team. I looked at a person who I am not friends with and am not on the same private team and the portions of their private team posts that were visible told me her weight, when she was away from home, where she was traveling, and other personal details that she thought she was only sharing with her private team.

So, in spite of it making it harder for members to find me to friend me (and as a team leader who does much of the member communications with my team that is crucial), I made my Activity Profile non-public thinking that should control my info. Nope. In sharing this issue with my team, one member announced they didn't see any need to hide their Activity Profile and then proceeded to tag members (including me) sharing a summary of something personal that had been shared with the team along with her response. I went to her Activity Profile and noticed that our full user name along with our issue was now exposed for anyone to read. I have gone to several accounts of people I'm not friends with and can see portions of private posts, and have had other members say they also can see those.

As a team leader, we have a private planning team where leaders can discuss things in private. Included in that is sharing info about members that is for leader's eyes only. Like when they message us explaining how they are ill, someone in their family dying or planning a vacation and need to be excused so they are not marked inactive - things they don't want to share with the team. That's where leaders share the info with each other and in doing that we have that info being put in our Activity Profile. And I've been seeing things I was never meant to see of both friends and non-friends who are on private teams I am not on. Because I was not friends with the folks I randomly selected to view, I can't go back and get screenshots to show you as I don't remember who they were, so it will take a little time and effort for me to put that together. But it IS happening!

@durden , appreciate your looking into this. It really is a deal breaker for me. I feel betrayed and violated to see posts from private teams on Activity Profiles - my own, my friends, and most especially non-friends.

Adventurista

DNjoys wrote: »

I too am using the web as I don't use my phone for Internet, if that makes a difference. I was horrified at what I saw exposed when clicking on "replies" in people's Activity Profiles that were excerpts (if not the entire post) of posts made on PRIVATE teams over the past several days. The idea that ANYONE can see and read posts that were made on a private team where those expressing themselves believed only members of that team could see them is a total breach of trust. I've already resigned as team leader and plan to leave MFP permanently by the end of the year as my commitments come to a close.

If you truly are unaware of this happening and would view it as an issue to be fixed, that changes everything. I have gone to Activity Profiles of top leaders and read things that no one should have access to - info from private planning teams where they were discussing a member they were having issues with, and other issues with their team. I looked at a person who I am not friends with and am not on the same private team and the portions of their private team posts that were visible told me her weight, when she was away from home, where she was traveling, and other personal details that she thought she was only sharing with her private team.

So, in spite of it making it harder for members to find me to friend me (and as a team leader who does much of the member communications with my team that is crucial), I made my Activity Profile non-public thinking that should control my info. Nope. In sharing this issue with my team, one member announced they didn't see any need to hide their Activity Profile and then proceeded to tag members (including me) sharing a summary of something personal that had been shared with the team along with her response. I went to her Activity Profile and noticed that our full user name along with our issue was now exposed for anyone to read. I have gone to several accounts of people I'm not friends with and can see portions of private posts, and have had other members say they also can see those.

As a team leader, we have a private planning team where leaders can discuss things in private. Included in that is sharing info about members that is for leader's eyes only. Like when they message us explaining how they are ill, someone in their family dying or planning a vacation and need to be excused so they are not marked inactive - things they don't want to share with the team. That's where leaders share the info with each other and in doing that we have that info being put in our Activity Profile. And I've been seeing things I was never meant to see of both friends and non-friends who are on private teams I am not on. Because I was not friends with the folks I randomly selected to view, I can't go back and get screenshots to show you as I don't remember who they were, so it will take a little time and effort for me to put that together. But it IS happening!

@durden , appreciate your looking into this. It really is a deal breaker for me. I feel betrayed and violated to see posts from private teams on Activity Profiles - my own, my friends, and most especially non-friends.

Bold highlight added by me, that is even another shocking aspect.

durden

Thanks for all the details you've all given here and in the support request that was sent in- having hard info and screenshots is very valuable. I'm compiling all of this and doing testing so I can send a detailed report to our forum provider, Vanilla.

To be very clear again; this is the first time this has ever been reported to us, and I agree it is far from ideal. I can't say whether this is a bug or an oversight in their design, but in either case i'm going to be lobbying for Vanilla to fix or change this.

aalley5

@durden, That is great news! I'm glad to see this. Thank you and please keep us up to date. Thanks so much for your help.

Adventurista

Thank you @durden

I do think this might have started recently. I did not notice the problem a few weeks ago when i was looking (to remember what someone told me.) Noticed it for the first time when this discussion here started.

Do appreciate that you're on it now. Look forward to when it is fixed up.

durden

@Adventurista @aalley5 @DNjoys

I believe this issue should now be resolved; i've done some limited testing and believe that to be the case, but am going to ask you all to verify for me if you can before we consider this resolved.

Adventurista

@durden - wow, thank you! This is great, glad it's fixed!

to confirm. I just checked and also think it is fixed now. I can no longer see other people's posts on private teams that I do not belong to in their MFP Profile Replies list. This is true for both my friends and for not friends (that I could see before.) Appears to be resolved!

Adventurista

@durden

Also, to add, i could not see anything new since i last checked. And, i NO LONGER see the old ones i could see before.

Thanks again!

DNjoys

@durden - The issue appears to be fixed. I've looked at both friends (that I viewed before) and non-friends and the only comments I can now see are either teams I belong to or public teams. Thank you so much! I was literally about to burn my last bridge as far as staying on, but will now reconsider. This was fixed more quickly than expected. Thank you for making it a priority!!!

marg750me

thank you all who brought the problem to durden's attention and he was able to fix it

@durden Thank for checking into the problem and getting it resolved quickly

durden

Happy to help, ya'll. It's what i'm here for.

Dianedoessmiles1

@durden oh TY! I'm in the same group as an overall leader of the 8 groups/teams within a large group of many responders above. It was horrifying to think that we talk over among us could be read. TY so much for the attention. We are a group of over 200 members. Our members private matters always should be top priority. It's very appreciated.

Please thank the others for us in making sure what is private remains as such. Our main group is public but the other groups are not.

Those of you who know me and took care of this THANK YOU so much!

hicim705

Dianedoessmiles1 wrote: »

@durden oh TY! I'm in the same group as an overall leader of the 8 groups/teams within a large group of many responders above. It was horrifying to think that we talk over among us could be read. TY so much for the attention. We are a group of over 200 members. Our members private matters always should be top priority. It's very appreciated.

Please thank the others for us in making sure what is private remains as such. Our main group is public but the other groups are not.

Those of you who know me and took care of this THANK YOU so much!

I'm somewhat late to the party - I had heard about this but because of other pressing issues at home, I did not do a test on my own. I was looking for information about this and came across this forum started by @aalley5. She is one of my co-leaders on one of the teams that I lead.

MFP is where many of us came from SP - we knew that it wasn't an exact fit (and they had their own problems/issues) ... but - we thought we found a home here. I was getting incredibly stressed as I began second-guessing myself for bringing 200+/- members here a few years ago.

I know most of the members that have posted here as they are loyal 5% Challenge Members - we would hate to lose them and on the flip-side, I think MFP might hate to lose the 5% Challenges.

There have been quite a few changes since we came here - things that were taken away if you didn't pay premium fees (scanning to the nutrition tracker, macros tracking, blogging are a few that I can think of off the top of my head). HOWEVER, putting all of these enhancements (or, some might argue - downgrades) aside ~ security and safety should be a priority for MFP - regardless of what forum provider is used.

ONCE AGAIN - thank you for jumping on this so quickly. I find sending messages to MFP and their 'experts' is cumbersome and most of the time the messages seem to go unaddressed/unanswered (unless I'm not sure where to look for answers).

Heidi (hicim705)
2024 Autumn/Fall 5% Challenge ~ Challenge Leader 🔴🌡️RED HOTS🌡️🔴 Team
Overall Co-Leader, Seasonal 5% Challenges

Co-Leader, Seasonal 5% Challenges ~ ✍️🖊️📓💻Bloggers✍️🖊️📓💻!!

🥳🎊🎉🌟✨ CELEBRATING the beginning of our 4th Year
of Seasonal 5% Challenges on MyFitnessPal ✨🌟🎉🎊🥳

durden

ONCE AGAIN - thank you for jumping on this so quickly. I find sending messages to MFP and their 'experts' is cumbersome and most of the time the messages seem to go unaddressed/unanswered (unless I'm not sure where to look for answers).

I'm afraid it's the latter case here; Just to be sure I looked this up, and it turns out i've personally responded to several of your emails and you've never gotten back to anything i've sent. I'd suggest checking your spam folders.