Rhiza Labs FluTracker Forum

The bots are built-in to the phpbb code to help (in part) admins control how search engines access the content on the board so it can be indexed and show up in google. They wouldn't have the ability to view PM's. They probably do track the active topics, attempting to index new messages, though they may or may not have read access to the particular forum.

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I am not a doctor, virologist, or any of type of medical/life sciences professional.

I am a layman with a background in the physical sciences.

regardless how bots operate everything entered is recorded forever (currently) and can be used for any number of nefarious activities.

Although this is somewhat off-topic, it is worth noting given how this thread has morphed.

About 6 months ago, I performed a security audit for an internet company who had their web site hosted on a machine in Texas (it was a Canadian company who did not have an affiliate in the U.S.). It is common for many smaller firms to have their web site hosted by another larger company in another country - although sometimes the owners of the companies don't realize this.

Anyway, as part of the audit, I tracked the packets that were going to and from our clients machines here in Canada. I was very surprised by what I saw.

The hosting machine (where the web site was physically hosted on a computer) was located in Texas. The company computers accessing the web site were located in Alberta. The packets traveled from the company machine to Vancouver and down the west coast to California, then across to Nevada and then to Texas (to the same city where the machine was hosted).

BUT THE PACKETS DIDN'T STOP THERE!

They then traveled across to the east coast and to Washington DC. The packets then turned around, and traveled back to Texas along the same reverse path where they stopped.

Think about that for a moment now.

The packets were being purposely diverted from Texas to Washington DC. This was true for all web traffic and all e-mail traffic that was handled by that server in Texas.

If anyone does not believe that the Patriot Act has had considerable bite and may have weakened freedoms, think again.

By the way, the company has since started hosting their website and services using systems located in Canada.

Our local College also recently uprooted their website (which was also hosted in the U.S.) because of the Patriot Act and how it could infringe on the rights of Canadian citizens.

It's a bit scary how quickly the protective nature of the U.S. may be evolving into privacy invasion.