Protected entries are not safe from being publicized because of trust – it is assumed that anyone who is added to someone’s friends list will not take the info to which they have password-protected access and not talk about it or post it anywhere else. That IS often the case, but only because no one really cares enough to do anything to the info they’ve got.
There’s also the problem of adding people to friends list because you want to watch their journal, but you don’t necessarily want them to read yours – that’s why I’ve always thought that LiveJournal should have some sort of “trusted” feature where instead of simply adding people to a friends list, you also can have the option to entrust them with access to your protected entries.
Filtered posts take care of that, but still… it’s not as official as I think it should be.
Obviously, you should never post anything in a protected entry that you think could be incriminating or dangerous to publicize. If you don’t want your phone number in danger of being publicized you should only give it out by request. Even stuff like what you think about someone… if you believe it’s going to cause drama, the little “lock” really isn’t going to do anything.
In fact, I’ll go as far as saying that I don’t even see the REASON for protected entries. The best way to handle sensitive information is to realize that posting something accessible by others on the Internet is as good as publicizing it to the ENTIRE Internet, and you might as well post a public entry, omitting parts that could be accessed through the poster, through a one-on-one, need-to-know basis.
Private entries, well, they’re private entries. Woo hooray for private entries. Those are as safe as any other password-protected personal info.
Speaking about “trusted” and “security labels,” my job is going really well. As of today, I only have one more month left to work at Sun, but things are finally getting interesting and I finally have things to do. I can help other employees, I’m not spending hours just goofing off and surfin’ the net because I have nothing better to do (although I can take time off to do an LJ post or two, like now), and I actually understand and like what I’m working towards. BTW, unrelated to my division, Solaris is open-source and free, all you Linux fags, so start using that instead.
Solaris
sucks — but like an ugly girl. It gets the job done (kinda), but you don’t really want to tell anyone you’re using Solaris.
Now Linux, linux sucks like the 50 year old prostitute you run into down in Tijuana 5 minutes after she’s completed the Donkey Show, juices still dripping down her chin, her toothless gums smiling seductively at the passing tourists..
Oh, she has AIDS too.
And vaginal centipedes
Actually, she doesnt have vaginal centipedes, it’s really a man.
Or at least once was.
And that, children, is why you should never use Linux.
Another Good Reason to use FreeBSD
Re: Solaris
ok
Sorry
I really, really hate Linux
If I believed in a Christian god, I’d consider that he put Linux on this earth to taunt and anger me.
Re: Sorry
Oh, I haven’t had good experiences with Linux either. But mostly stuff about ease-of-use, like the fact that I have to compile programs and edit configuration files, not really how it’s built or whatever. (protip: Everything works automatically for me in Windows)
Re: Sorry
For the record: I’m not saying that you don’t have to do this in Solaris (and I expect you have to do this all the time in FreeBSD too!), what I’m just pointing out is that what angers ME is that I have to do stuff like this at all, in any of ’em.
But do enlighten me on why FreeBSD is better than Linux, because I really have no idea. (I really don’t have any idea about Solaris either, besides Solaris’s capacity for “zones,” with which my division has been working closely.)
Re: Sorry
The ports package management system removes most to all of the compiling from source problems and many of the configuration difficulties. Although for a lot of stuff editing configuration files is often a lot cleaner and better than using some kind of GUI configuration utility, like for more complicated web server configurations and stuff. GUI designers rarely represent conditionals cleanly.
There are Linux variants that do the package management stuff too, notably Gentoo and Debian/Ubuntu. Debian in particular has really gotten off its ass lately.
But yeah, FreeBSD is pretty awesome.
Re: Sorry
I’ve used Ubuntu for a bit and its package management program was rather awesome.
I still had to compile a Canon printer driver, though.
Re: Solaris
Amen.
Re: Solaris
Another good reason to use FreeBSD is unrelated pictures of the OpenDarwin mascot and an utterly, mindbogglingly hilarious picture of the little devil dude raping the penguin?
I think it’s hard to take a “secret” that any posts online as a serious secret. You don’t have that chance to look someone in the eye and say “I trust you with this information, please respect that.” It’s on the internet; people leave computers logged on or people simply don’t notice a lock in the corner so I agree with you on this.
The “leaving computers logged on” thing doesn’t fall within the range of why protected posts are insecure. That’s just a serious slip-up that no one should be dumb enough to do. It’s like leaving your wallet somewhere.
This is why it’s a good thing that LJ’s “log out” button is on every page. I think their user settings page should be more visible too, though.
I only mention that because I’ve seen it as a common missasumption that if you use a protected post, your information is safe and leaving it at that. It’s like thinking if you walk in a crosswalk, no cars will hit you. You still have to keep your head up, the little lock isn’t perfect security.
Another way would be to have a draconian screensaver timeout (with the prompt-for-password-on-resume bit turned on) and/or the hotkey (Win-L on Windows XP/2000).
I prefer to leave the computer on; I just lock it whenever possible. 🙂
I totally disagree. I make the entries protected that are protected to keep out passerbys,people I know don’t have any other access to my LJ, and authority figures and the like. I don’t expect it to be secure, but at the same time, I know it at least has a LITTLE effect. There are some people I know will probably never read a protected entry of mine.
And I think trusted users makes sense, but group filters do the same thing, and better. For example, there might be some people I don’t mind knowing everything, and then maybe some people I want to read everything except thing about, oh say, drugs.
But I don’t make very many protected entries anymore because I’m pretty open, don’t care about what people know about me, and maybe trust people too much. But trust can be a valuable thing these days.
And I know that the only way a protected entry is going to fall within the nads of my parents or boss or something is only if I slip up and am logged in or something, but again, that would be a trust violation and something would have happened LJ or not.
I think this comes into play when people get offended when someone tells someone else something they posted as “friends only.” The only time I use friends only is when I want to keep it to my known readership. But I don’t post something I wouldn’t want anyone else to know.
It’s one thing if you post something online and it gets out versus someone breaking into your room, stealing your diary, and reading it outloud to a group of people. People have realistic expectations of their journals.
i kinda skimmed your entry so i don’t know the details, but i think private/protected entries are good for some things….. i’ll tell you why if you want on IM…
Uhh. Maybe you’d understand my point if you read more than what was just in bold.
I have to use Solaris all day at work.
I’m actually starting to like it, but only because the areas in which it is SEVERELY LIMITED are only important if you’re not at work.
I made my desktop blue! I like the “Toronto” background from 1994.
When I friends-only… I just don’t want the crap I write to show up on my friends’ friends pages… Often because I just don’t want to have to talk to somebody new (low risk… I admit) when I’m in the mood that makes me ‘protect’ my entry.. Anything else is asking too much.