Thursday, October 11th, 2007 10:36 pm
In perusing the comments to the latest [livejournal.com profile] news post, I saw that someone had mentioned 'LJ Find'. It's a non-affiliated site that allows you to search for LJ posts. The problem? Well, it turn up f-locked and private posts. Granted, you can't click on the link and see the whole post, but it does give you a preview.

I'm not too concerned (the only private posts are my old ones I haven't spent the time to delete, but made private since they don't make sense since I cleaned out my LJ scrapbook!) but for some people who are trying to hide information from people and the communities embroiled in the bitter fanart debates, this could be a problem...
Friday, October 12th, 2007 03:43 am (UTC)
That's unsettling. My journal's friends-locked -- I'm not worried about anyone I don't want using that to see my entries, but still, I don't like that they possibly could.
Friday, October 12th, 2007 03:56 am (UTC)
I cannot get it to work.
Friday, October 12th, 2007 04:02 am (UTC)
It doesn't turn up any post that started out as private or f-only. It only turns up stuff that was public at one time, but got changed later.
Friday, October 12th, 2007 02:44 pm (UTC)
I'm not too concerned. I mean who are we trying to hide information from really? We're not exactly CIA agents with case sensitive information that the world can't know. And even if some perfect stranger did take an interest in our private posts they can't post any replies because it's private and F-Listed. Unless you're hiding your Christmas shopping list from your kids or your global announcement that you've got crabs and herpes and the crabs are living in the herpes sores, I don't think we have much to worry about.
Friday, October 12th, 2007 08:13 pm (UTC)
I don't think we have much to worry about except if a boss or an ex or a teacher or a student happen upon posts that are none of their business....
Friday, October 12th, 2007 08:36 pm (UTC)
This is troubling. I try to lock anything that involves other people too much, because while it is MY journal, it doesn't seem right to put fairly identifying and personal information out there regarding other people in my family, job, etc. (except my last post, but even that isn't too identifying, just highly embarrassing to my brother). I also lock any posts with photos of my family members, particularly my son.

I started this journal when I was in graduate school, it was a much needed outlet for venting and airing my insecurities. Had there been a security lapse like that back then, I won't have even set up a blog.

Also, according to their FAQ:
Are private journal posts indexed?

No, private or friends only posts are not published by Livejournal so we do not have access to them.


Does this mean Livejournal DOES 'publish' private/friends-only posts?


Also, I can't seem to find any of mine on there, but in my profile settings, I've always had chosen the options of leaving my journal unsearchable.
Saturday, October 13th, 2007 05:24 am (UTC)
If you're still worried... (http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_lounge/606584.html?thread=13735800#t13735800)
Saturday, October 13th, 2007 05:28 am (UTC)
It's not a "security lapse". LJ Find can only search public entries, or archived entries that were public. If a post has only ever been private then it can't see it.
Saturday, October 13th, 2007 07:15 pm (UTC)
Well, it was explained to me that this only happens when a post is initially posted as public, then changed later. So as long as you default is 'friends-only', you should never have a problem.
Saturday, October 13th, 2007 07:15 pm (UTC)
All I managed to get was a really weird random jumble of entries. I'm not sure how it was 'searching'
Saturday, October 13th, 2007 07:16 pm (UTC)
Ah! And since I changed mine after the fact, that makes sense. I can't get it to search well enough to see if any of the very few f-locked posts I have will turn up (it really doesn't seem to work that well, or maybe I'm just doing it wrong. But Google blog search seems so much better!).
Saturday, October 13th, 2007 07:18 pm (UTC)
The only possible problem is if you talk about work. People have been fired for doing that, so I can see that being a concern. Yes, it's silly that they'd get fired over blowing off some steam, but it does happen. I'm pretty careful about what I say about my job, and if problems ever arose I'd almost certainly start a different one with a very unrecognizable name to vent!
Saturday, October 13th, 2007 07:20 pm (UTC)
According to what everyone has told me, you just have to be very careful when first posting - if it's never been public, it won't be indexed. But if you mess up and accidentally post it publicly, then change it, it's there to stay. So double-check before you hit 'post' on anything sensitive!
Saturday, October 13th, 2007 07:25 pm (UTC)
Oh, I'm not. What have I ever put here that the whole world couldn't see? Sure, I lock a few things, but they're mostly silly whiny things, or things like Round 11, where it's part of the contest.

Oh, and I do tend to lock if I'm linking to something to mock... just so it won't show up to that person on a Google blog search. Man, I found a well of drama I didn't know existed last night! Mostly internet love and false pregnancy kinda things, so nothing new, but evidently it's quite a big deal to the wank contingent over at ljusersectrets (http://ljusersecrets.suckafree.ws/).
(Anonymous)
Sunday, October 28th, 2007 02:51 pm (UTC)
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