privacy: an anonymous poll of sorts

[balmofgilead]

There's no way to do anonymous polls here, so I turned off IP logging and people can leave anonymous comments.

YES/NO: When you are in someone else's house or space, do you/would you look through their medicine cabinet, open their dresser drawers, look through a pile of papers, etc? (I'm not talking about needing a band-aid and looking for one--I'm talking about snooping.)

Also feel free to add your thoughts: do you expect that people will do this sometimes, even if you personally feel it's wrong?  *Do* you feel it's wrong? Does it matter how close you are to the person? Does it matter if they're relatives?

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I had an experience once where a guest staying in a my room made it obvious that they'd read a college application essay I'd been keeping in my desk drawer.  Clearly, then, some people do this sort of stuff and some people think it's totally okay.  I am of many minds on this.

Comments

[nahuelito.livejournal.com]

i do tend to look in medicine cabinet, mostly to see if they've been decorated. i spend a lot of time making my medicine cabinet look nice. so i do assume that someone might look in there. i always put papers away when people come over. i've been in people's houses though where they had bills and other stuff laying around in the open, even when i was expected. in one case i saw that someone i know has $100,000 in student loan debt. i figured if it was out, then they didn't care. looking in someone's drawers though would be absolutely off limits. even if i did look at something in a moment of weakness i would never talk about it to the person i'd been snooping on!

in sum, if it's out b/c the person didn't bother to clean up, it's sort of fair game, but looking at personal papers should be avoided.

i also try to keep my eyes off papers and computer screens when i go into other people's offices at work, but that is more about avoiding the appearance of being a snoop and also b/c it bugs me when people come into my office and start looking at everything i have out.