SmugMug doesn't seem to understand the meaning of privacy

Filed under: Internet, Security, Web services, web 2.0

SmugMug doesn't seem to understand the meaning of privacy

by Brad Linder Jan 28th 2008

The folks at Google Blogoscoped have uncovered what appears to be a pretty glaring privacy hole in online photo sharing site SmugMug. Like many online photo sharing services, SmugMug allows users to mark images as public or private. If your images are private they won't show up on your profile page and other users are only supposed to be able to find them if you send them a special URL, which is not password protected.

Sure, a password would make the page more secure, but it would also make it more inconvenient for your friends, family, and colleagues to see your vacation photos. But as long as there's no easy way for the general public to find your photos, they're still secure from prying eyes, right?

Maybe not. The problem is that SmugMug gives images a predictable URL string, starting with http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/1000. All you have to do is change the number and you'll start to find photo album after photo album, whether they're market public or private.

As Google Blogoscope's Philipp Lenssen points out, the solution could be as simple as using a random string of characters. But the CEO of SmugMug replied in an email to Lenssen that the system wasn't built for randomized strings, and changing it now would be expensive. And you know what? If most SmugMug users remain blissfully unaware that their "private" images might be publicly accessible then maybe it's not wroth the time and money to fix the flaw. But we kind of think SmugMug and any other company that claims to offer users some level of privacy should really be willing to improve their system when flaws are pointed out.

Tags: images, photo-sharing, photos, privacy, smugmug

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

kevjohn said 12:48PM on 1-28-2008

That's just sloppy, SmugMug.

I wonder if changing the gallery number to view the different 'private' albums will be considered to be a form of hacking in N. Dakota.

Erik Anderson said 2:10PM on 1-28-2008

While I agree that this is somewhat sloppy, this type of privacy, even when using random strings, falls into the "security by obscurity" umbrella. If people *really* want their pictures to be private, apply a password.

Rocketboy said 2:39PM on 1-28-2008

Shades of the MSN Groups Magic Link...

Barnabas Kendall said 5:12PM on 1-28-2008

I posted a workaround for SmugMug's "problem" in my blog, and it isn't as expensive as the previously proposed solution:

http://barnabas.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/plugging-smugmugs-hole/

They don't have to convert to random characters (or GUIDs), but they should do something. This is a PR disaster waiting to happen, as MySpace recently found out.

Greg said 1:49PM on 1-30-2008

I agree with KevJohn- this issue does seem sort of sloppy. You would think that with issues like Facebook’s privacy that other sites (competitors even) would tidy up on the privacy settings and even promote a stronger privacy policy. In today’s online world, a solid privacy and security policy could be a huge competitive advantage.

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