Should I feel bad about this? (Internet, privacy, ethics, and a bit more)

In My Humble Opinion
1

When someone posts a picture here that obviously comes from a larger personal website, is there anything wrong with perusing around the other pages on that persons site?

I’m particularly interested in people’s opinions on picture sites. That is, if someone says, ‘Hey, check this out’, and not only do you go and check that out, but with only a bit of manipulation, you check out other stuff, like family pictures and whatnot, is that ethically, morally, or whatever fits the bill, wrong?

Part of me feels dirty doing it, and feel that I’m intruding and need to leave, but the other part of me says, ‘Hey, this is all public. You know that by putting this on the web you’ve made it open for anyone and their brother to view, right?’

But still, it feels so… wrong.

What do you think? Have you done it?

2
  • Let me just add, so it’s clear, that there’s no implication of anything illegal in the above scenario. Everything is assumed to be open and public-- no hacking, cracking, or anything coming close to that, is implied or assumed.
3

Cnote: Whatcher talkin’ about here is, let’s say, someone posts a link to a pic
…/domain.com/username/pix/pixofme01.jpg
And you diddle your little address bar to
…/domain.com/username/pix/
And thence peruse the other pix in that directory, yeah? Alternately, you look for pixofme02, 03, 04, etc.

This being the case, well…
Hell, it still depends. I’d say a quick email to the owner of the pix might be in order if you’re feeling guilty about it. Possibly, said poster isn’t highly net-savvy, and has no idea that things that aren’t directly linked to can still be accessed like so. Possibly, they sent just the one link for privacy reasons, and would indeed mind you poking through the rest of their stuff. (Though I’m also of the opinion that putting anything anywhere unsecured on the web is basically askin’ fer it.)

Obviously, I’ve done something similar m’self, though I’m usually trying to access something that’s just been improperly linked/coded on a genuinely accessible page. So if this is someone you respect (or, at the least, have no personal beef with) I’d say look at the pic they linked, and if they seem a bit clueless, drop 'em a line, with a “did you know” message.

Who knows, ya jest might stamp out a little ignorance for someone. :wink: YMMV, of course.

4

:smack:
Nice how I almost completely ignored the actual question, wannit?
:wally

I wouldn’t feel too terribly bad about it, were I you. The bottom line is, it was put up in a publically open spot. This is kinda like nailing your photo album up on a telephone pole on a busy street, and walking away; you just gotta expect curious people to stop and look.

All you’re doing is checking out what’s there, without breaking into a secure file area. If they wanted no one to see it, it would be better stored in one’s desk drawer.

(But again, they may not realize that.)

5

So much for being subtle, Skeezix. But yeah, it’s something like that.

One vote for, ‘Not a biggie’.

Anyone else?

6

Sorry Skeezix, I didn’t mean to dismiss your reply so quickly.

Sure, there’ve been times I’ve thought about telling the poster, website, or what-have-you that their fly’s open to the world. But other times, I honestly have no feeling towards the person, or entity, whatsoever- what do I care.

I guess my question is more down the lines of, is this even right to be doing in the first place. If so, how do you justify it? If not, what do you think, or feel, about people that do?

If it turns out people are seriously upset about this, and had no clue it was possible, I’d feel more badly about it and actually take some time and tell people they’re doing what they’re doing.

If people are like, ‘Who gives a shit. I know it’s open and for all to see.’, then I wouldn’t feel even a modicum of concern.

Just curious.

7

I agree with Skeezix. If it’s supposed to be private, putting it on the web is just silly. I take the attitude that anything obviously unsecured is fair game, especially if the poster has linked to their website.

8

If you don’t want me looking in your living room, don’t leave your curtains open and your lights on. :slight_smile:

9

It’s definitely ok in my book. I don’t have anything in my web directory that I wouldn’t want other people to see. As people have said, if you want it private, either learn the skills to make it that or just don’t put it up in the first place. Browse with recless abandon, CnoteChris!

10

I don’t put anything particularly private on my site, so I don’t mind of people explore.

However, as a general courtesy, if someone links to MyPic.jpg only, I don’t explore the rest of the site unless I’ve been more explicitly invited to do so.

I don’t think it’s a big deal, but still to make sure there’s no misunderstanding, I ask.

Example/
Pizza delivery guy shows up one cold winter night, so I say “c’mon inside.” Technically, yes, I invited him in, but I’d consider it a little impolite if he then started wandering through my living room and dining area.

Whenever I’m in doubt, I ask. But I don’t find it overtly rude or objectionable if someone goes to MyPic.jpg and then continues to explore. My website is viewable by the worldwide public, after all.

11

I think it is fine, and I do it myself. I figure almost anyone who knows enough to build a site should know enough to realize that

  1. nothing unsecured on the web is safe - and even secured stuff there aren’t any guarantees.

  2. it is laughably easy to fiddle with the URL enough to go see other parts of their site.

I don’t feel bad at all about poking around other peoples sites, if they have invited me to one page.

Twiddle

12

Damn, I must be really uptight 'cause I’d have a problem with that if the other pics weren’t explicitly linked.
I do kinda agree that it’s foolish for people to build a web page and have private stuff in the same location as public stuff. However, especially with all the fancy GUI easy build-your-own-web-page-in-5-seconds-flat software I’d guess that the majority of web pages out there are by relatively unsophisticated computer users who quite possibly didn’t mean for all that stuff to be visible.
I’d at least send them a heads up.

13

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.

14

I do that from time to time. It never occurred to me that anyone would have a problem with it. If there are enough votes on here for “I wouldn’t like it if someone did that to me,” I promise to never do it again.

Haj

15

:confused: Maybe I’m dim or something, but I can’t see any reason why someone would create a webpage and then object to someone looking at it no matter how they got there (hacking/cracking security measures such as passwords excepted). What if Doper X never posted a link to any part of his/her website here, but you found it through a search engine or a link from someone else’s website? Would it be wrong to read it? Then why would it be wrong to read it was he/she has posted a link to part of it?

16

Nothing wrong in my book. I post links to pictures within my website all the time - like this one - and I always assume folks may explore other parts of the site - that’s kind of why I have it up:)

That said, however, I do have directory listing disabled on my site for I would prefer folks not to be snooping around through ALL of my files and such.

17

I get emails all the time from people who have explored my site after I posted a picture - I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, and it seems like they don’t either. “I saw your picture and explored your site. Neat, really enjoyed the pics!” Stuff like that.

18

My take is anything that a person put on a website is what he wants to show the world. Unless of course the website is protected by some means and you cracked your way in.

19

You could be talking about me CnoteChris.
I have put up a few links to my webspace.
It’s fine with me if you or someone else takes a look.
I avoid anything controversial or private. It’s just pictures of me and my work.

20

How the heck 'ya know, Forbin? I didn’t even post to that thread.

Yeah, it was your site that I ran into and explored a bit. Not anything big, mind you, or seriously bad, just poked around to see what was there.

Normally when I’ve done this, about all I run into are, ‘Here’s my cat’, ‘Here’s my dog’, ‘Here’s my plant’ type pictures, stuff so boring I wonder to myself why I’m even doing it.

But with yours I was sitting there looking at someone’s wedding (I think). I don’t know why, but for some reason that just creeped me out(And that’s no reflection on the people pictured in the wedding photo’s or anything like that. They’re quite attractive). After I got uncomfortable and left, I had to ask myself why it was I did that, and whether or not there was something wrong with it. Thus, this thread.

Despite the overwhelming responses saying it’s essentially ok and not a problem to do it, for some reason, and I don’t know why, I still think there’s something… I dunno, iffy about it all .

And I guess the more I think about this, the more I think I was hoping people would come in and say, ‘Dude, that’s just wrong’, or something down those lines. Then, in a sense, I could say, ‘Yeah, you’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking.’- I could kind of justify my feeling of… again, I dunno, feeling iffy about it. Seeing that people are saying, essentially, ‘No prob here’ kind of confounds me, in a way, because it’s the opposite of what I thought, or even expected to hear.

Interesting.

At any rate, I appreciate the responses, and am glad the person who’s site made me question what I was doing actually came in here and said, ‘No prob’ (How you knew it was me, I’ll never know, but cool, I guess).

Thanks again.