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In need of security advice ...
app103:
For every trick you can think of to protect an image, there are at least 3 ways to get around it.
Even services you pay for, like Digimarc, can't protect you. It won't stop anyone from getting the photos or displaying them elsewhere, and the embedded "invisible" marks are really easy to remove by just creating a new blank image of the same size, copying the original and pasting as a new layer, then merging the layers.
I experimented with this stuff when my daughter considered it for her photos. Paintshop Pro comes with the tools needed to embed & read Digimarcs, and a sample key to see how it works. I just played around with some basic stuff till I was no longer able to read the sample mark. It didn't take very long. I was able to remove it on the 2nd try, without visibly altering the image. (first try was copy & paste as new image, which failed)
cyberdiva:
I've never used SmugMug, but I know people who have, and they're very pleased with the array of features, which include a number of different ways to protect the privacy of your photos. Here are a few that they list:
At SmugMug you can:
* Password-protect selected galleries.
* Password-protect your entire SmugMug site.
* Tell search engines to ignore you.
* Hide selected photos so only you can see them.
* Make selected galleries private. Your friends can visit them without entering passwords, but only if you give them the address.
* Make your entire SmugMug site private. Your friends can visit without entering a password, but only if you give them the address.
I'm not sure whether this will meet your needs, but I thought I'd mention it.
Renegade:
* Tell search engines to ignore you.
* Make selected galleries private. Your friends can visit them without entering passwords, but only if you give them the address.
* Make your entire SmugMug site private. Your friends can visit without entering a password, but only if you give them the address.
-cyberdiva (January 01, 2011, 09:41 AM)
--- End quote ---
All of those are empty promises and massive security holes. They make things harder for amateurs, but experienced people can hack through them.
If things are sensitive, then it's not worth it.
It's better not to put anything on the net that you don't want there without serious security. That isn't serious security. But then again, that may be all you need. It's probably more than most people need.
cyberdiva:
I wonder whether we're losing sight of barney's original message. He was trying to find a way to prevent bad guys from taking photos his daughter will put up on the Web. Some of the early responses dealt with the difficulty of locking down a photo that anyone can see.
I wonder, though, whether the protections SmugMug makes available are as lame as Renegade claims. I certainly agree that telling search engines to ignore you is not a dependable way to protect anything. But some of the other protections SmugMug offers seem as if they might do the job. If, for example, barney's daughter password protects her entire site with a strong password, the bad guys won't even know what she has put up. And while it's possible for a pro to break some passwords, why would s/he bother to do so on a site s/he knows nothing about? I think Renegade is right when he says "It's probably more [security] than most people need."
Renegade:
I wonder whether we're losing sight of barney's original message. He was trying to find a way to prevent bad guys from taking photos his daughter will put up on the Web. Some of the early responses dealt with the difficulty of locking down a photo that anyone can see.
I wonder, though, whether the protections SmugMug makes available are as lame as Renegade claims. I certainly agree that telling search engines to ignore you is not a dependable way to protect anything. But some of the other protections SmugMug offers seem as if they might do the job. If, for example, barney's daughter password protects her entire site with a strong password, the bad guys won't even know what she has put up. And while it's possible for a pro to break some passwords, why would s/he bother to do so on a site s/he knows nothing about? I think Renegade is right when he says "It's probably more [security] than most people need."
-cyberdiva (January 01, 2011, 01:21 PM)
--- End quote ---
I meant to address unprotected URLs. Friend WILL pass them around. The pictures WILL get around. But, logins and passwords do not get passed as easily. Password protection is entirely different, and I didn't attempt to say that it is bad.
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