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File-hosting Sites Not a Safe Haven For Private Data
An anonymous reader tips a story at the Register, according to which "Academic researchers say they've uncovered weaknesses in dozens of the most popular file hosting sites that allow people to gain unauthorized access to data that's supposed to be available only to those selected by the user."
That link I posted to a rar full of my favorite pr0n pics on /b/ is easy pickings to thousands of other online users? No wai!
I mean, I had no idea most people who used quick upload services like imgur, rapidshare, and mediafire uploaded most of their files with any implied expectancy of privacy. But boy was I wrong!
That was my initial reaction, but on second thought I think it is fairly newsworthy.
The Register's audience is regular users, who do stuff like put sensitive documents on a file sharing site. It's worth a few paragraphs to remind people not to do idiotic things.
It's also worth noting that these sites either a. have index pages turned on and don't know it, which would be so incompetent as to make me wonder how they keep a file server running or b. are allowing these pages to be crawled and telling their users that they aren't, which is unethical as hell and possibly illegal.