I am sure this has been raised before but I was stunned when I found it this afternoon. I clicked on a photo in the gallery and it told me that the photo was set to be viewable by certified friends only and was from a deleted user, as did another and another, a fourth said it was from a current user but again was certified friends only.
Does this mean that the privacy settings for media you post are absolutely worthless? Or does it mean that TT are wilfully ignoring them for their own ends.
Similarly if you delete a photo it shouldnt be accessible on the site by any means.
Which ever it is they are breaking all sorts of privacy laws in various countries, notably the EU and the UK, and leaving themselves open to legal action from anyone who finds their media is being misused.
I know that posting an image on the internet should always be regarded as taking a risk. But you shouldnt have that risk coming from the actual site operators failing to implement the measures they have in place.
Replies
- JO
JohnAug 20, 2021For the purpose of the main gallery, all registered users of TN (or TS for that site) are considered "Certified Friends" of the gallery. The same is true within Groups. If you are a member of the group, you have access to the groups gallery.
While there have been issues in the past with the security settings in personal account Media galleries not working correctly, that hasn't happened in quite awhile AFAIK.
If you delete your account without removing the media you posted to the main gallery, yes it stays there along with the link to it.
If you delete the media in the main gallery, I suspect only the link is deleted and the actual media still resides on the media server.
If you delete media you posted to your personal account media gallery, the link gets deleted, but the actual media remains on the media server. I have tested this.
If you delete your acccount, any postings you made to groups and/or the forums gets deleted, but I suspect only the link to any media attached to those postings is deleted and the actual media remains on the media server. I haven't tested this, but I would put money on it.
The bottom line is this site is a hodge podge of cobbled together and patched programming. Security is an after-thought. If your concerned, don't post it.
John aka cobeachbumReactReply - GUGuzzi27Original PosterAug 20, 2021[quote]For the purpose of the main gallery, all registered users of TN (or TS for that site) are considered "Certified Friends" of the gallery. The same is true within Groups. If you are a member of the group, you have access to the groups gallery. While there have been issues in the past with the security settings in personal account Media galleries not working correctly, that hasn't happened in quite awhile AFAIK. If you delete your account without removing the media you posted to the main gallery, yes it stays there along with the link to it. If you delete the media in the main gallery, I suspect only the link is deleted and the actual media still resides on the media server. If you delete media you posted to your personal account media gallery, the link gets deleted, but the actual media remains on the media server. I have tested this. If you delete your acccount, any postings you made to groups and/or the forums gets deleted, but I suspect only the link to any media attached to those postings is deleted and the actual media remains on the media server. I haven't tested this, but I would put money on it. The bottom line is this site is a hodge podge of cobbled together and patched programming. Security is an after-thought. If your concerned, don't post it. John aka cobeachbum[/quote] I would totally agree with the maxim of if you are are concerned, dont post it. That applies to the internet in general. But the general mess/hotch potch of things on this site gives one even less confidence than normal. Serious question though. I wonder how this site would cope with a legitimate GDPR/right to be forgotten request from a user deleting their account? I very much doubt they could. It would include all personal details, all photos the user had posted to whatever album, group, gallery even if they had been deleted and all links lost. And although not based in the EU my understanding is that if available to EU users then the site has to comply. I certainly lost the ability to access a number of US websites once GDPR was introduced by the EU. Things like local news station sites from the city I used to live in. Basically those sites started blocking EU IP addresses as they didnt want/need the hassle of complying. Some have opened up since the UK left the EU, but not all. And there is always a VPN for those sites that still block you.ReactReply