just in case

Jul 20, 2008 01:24

Remove any and all posts indexed from this journal by/to Ljfind.

Anyone have any idea how well this works or by what mechanism?

security wank, myob, etc etc blah blah blah

Leave a comment

rabswom July 20 2008, 05:47:06 UTC
Yes, please explain.

Reply

imbrium8 July 20 2008, 05:51:06 UTC
Here, instructions to opt out of a "service" that automatically indexes all lj posts--apparently, even if they are f-locked.

Reply

rabswom July 20 2008, 06:03:27 UTC
How is that possible? It indexes the content of my locked posts?

Reply

imbrium8 July 20 2008, 06:05:29 UTC
It certainly seems that way, since that's what it did with mine. Not all of them--probably not even 20--but I'm still incredibly furious.

Reply

melvillean July 20 2008, 06:11:30 UTC
Really? I find that hard to believe. They can't have access to your f-locked stuff. Maybe they were posts that were once unlocked, but then you later locked them?

Reply

imbrium8 July 20 2008, 06:12:20 UTC
Yes, they certainly can. I don't know how they do it, but they have. What's more, in googling around, I found other people complaining of the same time.

Reply

melvillean July 20 2008, 06:15:41 UTC
That doesn't make any sense, though. There's no way they have that access.

Reply

imbrium8 July 20 2008, 06:16:57 UTC
I have no idea how. All I know is that the URL I linked below displays several indexed posts for my username, and my journal is locked down. I had to change the default posting mode in order to even make a public post asking them not to index the journal.

Reply

melvillean July 20 2008, 06:19:58 UTC
Ok, but presumably when you locked down you had public posts that switched from public to friends-only, right? Those would be the ones they'd have access to since they would have been able to index them until you locked down. I haven't seen anybody complain of posting something initially as f-locked and then seeing it on ljfind. Everyone I've seen is bemoaning the indexing of f-locked posts which were once upon a time public.

Reply

imbrium8 July 20 2008, 06:22:00 UTC
Well, that's the puzzling thing. I was already f-locking everything when I posted the entries they have there.

Reply

melvillean July 20 2008, 06:27:02 UTC
Are you sure? That just seems impossible.

Like here for instance (the first entry on ljfind under your name): http://imbrium8.livejournal.com/210323.html

This *must* have originally been a public post since you've got a stranger commenting in it saying that s/he's going to add you as a friend. And that's the most recent post.

Reply

imbrium8 July 20 2008, 06:28:46 UTC
It's possible--and of course, my two or three unlocked posts are among those in there. I did sometimes forget to f-lock something, and then edit once it had posted.

Still pretty ticked off, though.

Reply

melvillean July 20 2008, 06:32:45 UTC
I'm just applying Occam's razor. It seems more reasonable to me that these were once-unlocked than that there's some huge gaping hole in livejournal's security that somebody has been using unpunished now for months or years.

And I really wouldn't worry about it. There's really nothing incriminating or identifying there (so far as I could tell). It's an annoyance, sure, but I'm skeptical about following directions given to me by Annoying Internet Presences that promise to stop being annoying if said directions are followed. I suppose I'll keep an eye on your guys's accounts on ljfind and see if this actually works.

I'm also blasé because I *want* my stuff to be found. ;)

Reply

imbrium8 July 20 2008, 06:35:18 UTC
Well, that's why I'm not happy--the info there is definitely identifying, if someone cared to look into it. Names of my adviser, professors and grades in their classes, info about a course I taught at Previous University, and a conference panel I was on. Grr.

Oh, and I was assuming less a huge gaping hole in LJ security, and more that the creator of Ljfind could have been lying about what they do and don't index. ;)

Reply

melvillean July 20 2008, 06:41:51 UTC
Eh. They'd have to do a lot of sleuthing. You should try it yourself and see how easy or difficult it would be to figure out who you are using google and the information available there (since that's what, like, 99.99% of the population would do if faced with this task). That might put your mind at ease. And (I just checked) there's no connection to imbrium8 by googling your real name (save for a variation of your lj-name at deviantart, but there's nothing there, so it's a bit of a dead end).

Reply

imbrium8 July 20 2008, 06:49:53 UTC
Oh, yeah, I'm not sure why the deviant art profile shows up when you google my name.

Reply


Leave a comment

Up