diff --git a/src/categories/recentreplies.js b/src/categories/recentreplies.js
index 2f50cc2bb8..8103668fdf 100644
--- a/src/categories/recentreplies.js
+++ b/src/categories/recentreplies.js
@@ -16,23 +16,18 @@ module.exports = function(Categories) {
 		if(!parseInt(count, 10)) {
 			return callback(null, []);
 		}
-		privileges.categories.can('read', cid, uid, function(err, canRead) {
-			if (err || !canRead) {
+
+		db.getSortedSetRevRange('cid:' + cid + ':pids', 0, count - 1, function(err, pids) {
+			if (err || !Array.isArray(pids) || !pids.length) {
 				return callback(err, []);
 			}
 
-			db.getSortedSetRevRange('cid:' + cid + ':pids', 0, count - 1, function(err, pids) {
-				if (err || !Array.isArray(pids) || !pids.length) {
-					return callback(err, []);
+			async.waterfall([
+				async.apply(privileges.posts.filter, 'read', pids, uid),
+				function(pids, next) {
+					posts.getPostSummaryByPids(pids, uid, {stripTags: true}, next);
 				}
-
-				async.waterfall([
-					async.apply(privileges.posts.filter, 'read', pids, uid),
-					function(pids, next) {
-						posts.getPostSummaryByPids(pids, uid, {stripTags: true}, next);
-					}
-				], callback);
-			});
+			], callback);
 		});
 	};
 
diff --git a/src/topics.js b/src/topics.js
index 630425fe25..cbdac6bed2 100644
--- a/src/topics.js
+++ b/src/topics.js
@@ -318,6 +318,9 @@ var async = require('async'),
 	};
 
 	Topics.getTopicsFields = function(tids, fields, callback) {
+		if (!Array.isArray(tids) || !tids.length) {
+			return callback(null, []);
+		}
 		var keys = tids.map(function(tid) {
 			return 'topic:' + tid;
 		});
diff --git a/src/topics/unread.js b/src/topics/unread.js
index 26c6ff1901..d4adf2a994 100644
--- a/src/topics/unread.js
+++ b/src/topics/unread.js
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ module.exports = function(Topics) {
 					tids = tids.slice(start, stop + 1);
 				}
 
-				callback(err, tids);
+				callback(null, tids);
 			});
 		});
 	};
@@ -115,45 +115,22 @@ module.exports = function(Topics) {
 			return callback(null, tids);
 		}
 
-		privileges.topics.filter('read', tids, uid, function(err, tids) {
-			if (err || !tids.length) {
-				return callback(err, []);
-			}
-
-			var keys = tids.map(function(tid) {
-				return 'topic:' + tid;
-			});
-
-			db.getObjectsFields(keys, ['tid', 'cid'], function(err, topics) {
-				if (err) {
-					return callback(err);
-				}
-
-				var topicCids = topics.filter(function(topic) {
-					return topic && topic.cid;
+		async.waterfall([
+			function(next) {
+				privileges.topics.filter('read', tids, uid, next);
+			},
+			function(tids, next) {
+				Topics.getTopicsFields(tids, ['tid', 'cid'], next);
+			},
+			function(topics, next) {
+				tids = topics.filter(function(topic) {
+					return topic && topic.cid && ignoredCids.indexOf(topic.cid.toString()) === -1;
 				}).map(function(topic) {
-					return topic.cid.toString();
-				});
-
-				topicCids = topicCids.filter(function(cid) {
-					return ignoredCids.indexOf(cid) === -1;
-				});
-
-				privileges.categories.filterCids('read', topicCids, uid, function(err, readableCids) {
-					if (err) {
-						return callback(err);
-					}
-
-					topics = topics.filter(function(topic) {
-						return topic.cid && readableCids.indexOf(topic.cid.toString()) !== -1;
-					}).map(function(topic) {
-						return topic.tid;
-					});
-
-					callback(null, topics);
+					return topic.tid;
 				});
-			});
-		});
+				next(null, tids);
+			}
+		], callback);
 	}
 
 	Topics.pushUnreadCount = function(uid, callback) {