Google

17 Feb 2013 12:29:42

Lionel Ogden

I was recently surprised to discover that documents I had stored on my personal web space with my isp were searchable by google. I mistakenly assumed that this was like cloud storage and only accessible by me.

I wonder how many others have made the same mistake.

Re: Google

17 Feb 2013 21:31:04

Roy Rainford

Having seen your posting Lionel I did a Google search with my name and found my images from a website, 500px, showing in the results. I hadn't, or so I thought, made them 'public'. I have deleted them. Thanks for the posting, Roy.

Re: Google

18 Feb 2013 11:18:21

Derek Wright

but have you had other people search for your Google based documents - and if so can they find them?

Re: Google

18 Feb 2013 11:26:12

Lionel Ogden

Yes it was my son who alerted me to the problem

Re: Google

23 Feb 2013 09:10:57

Euan Williams

CNET had a Members' Topic discussion about Cloud Security recently which may interest:

http://forums.cnet.com/7723-7588_102-585123/cloud-storage-and-sharing-is-it-secure/?tag=nl.e497&s_cid=e497&ttag=e497

Re: Google

26 Feb 2013 20:42:23

Lionel Ogden

I have since had a reply to my query from my ISP and they informed me that the web space was intended to hold web sites etc and as such was not hidden from search engines. Perhaps they will make this clear in the near future.

Re: Google

26 Feb 2013 21:33:45

Eleanor Spenceley

This might be of interest.

http://www.affilorama.com/site-building/robots-txt

Specifically

If there's content on your website that you really, really don't want anybody else seeing, your best bet is to password-protect that directory. There will usually be a tool to help you do this in your hosting control panel (cPanel or similar). Note that password-protecting your comment (if done right) will also prevent the unpolite bots from accessing the content

Re: Google

28 Feb 2013 09:39:53

Drew McFarlane

Is it possible that this subject could be discussed at the next Dorchester meeting?

Re: Google

28 Feb 2013 10:59:26

Eleanor Spenceley

Here's another interesting link which says what you did should not happen provided:

1. Your webserver is not supporting directory listing services as a default state.
2. If an index file such as "index.html, .htm, .php, .asp" or
"default.htm, .asp" is present in the folder root then the server will
refuse to give out a directory listing.
3. Your document is not getting picked up in Googles searches for specific file types?

Re: Google

28 Feb 2013 16:02:43

Mark Ford

Certainly is Andrew - - both Mick & Martin will be there.

Re: Google

28 Feb 2013 17:51:03

Eleanor Spenceley

Well, there's little more I think I could add without further internet research on the topic.

If you do want to temporarily share your (large) files across the internet (privately), something like DropBox might be better way. You can even share it to others who are non DropBox users.

Re: Google

28 Feb 2013 17:54:43

Douglas Cheney

I would agree with Martin, DropBox is very good for that. My son and and transfer lots of files that way