Time Machine And Private Files In Home Directory

[Paddington]

Lets say you have 2 user accounts, both administrators, both with private home directories, the contents of which can't be seen unless that user is logged in himself.

What happens if you use Time Machine to backup files to an external HD? Does it backup those directories only when that user is logged in?

Also, what happens to the protection of these files on the HD? Let's say you move that HD to a different computer. When you open it up, can you then see the previously private files of those users?

 

[Nothinman]

Assuming that whatever daemon does the backups run as root it can read the files just fine and unless it's really stupid it should preserve the permissions. If you move that drive to another computer you'll probably have to fix the permissions before you can see them.