Hello! :D So, my question may kinda be about something illigal…I think. Okay, there thsi guy I like, but I strongly think he is gay. And my question is: Is it right to ask for his phone to do something small (call a friend or etc.) and quickly look at his hystery on his phone and search for “pornography” to see if he watches straght or gay one?

Just to make sure he is straight. I know I can just ask him, but, well… no. If it is fine, and legal, to check his hystery, then I will do that. (I know that looking at somenes pornography hystery is kinda..you know…creepy… but I really want to be sure.) And he might as well be a maniac who deletes all traces, so then this question may be un-needed.

I can understand the urge to reduce your emotional risk, but, it is none of your business whether he is gay or not, so any sleuthing to determine that is inappropriate. Your motivation to know seems to be because you’re interested in dating him. If that is true, you should just tell him you’re interested in more than friendship, and let him respond. Regarding searching his phone, that’s a really bad idea for a few reasons. It’s almost certainly illegal in several ways. Even if it weren’t, it would be an invasion of privacy to snoop through someone’s phone for anything, much less something as personal as their browsing history. Hard to see how doing that as the first step in a possible relationship makes any sense.

The Answer Wall Story

Hi. I’m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.

I have some human ~~acolytes~~ assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.