Comments on: Bloglines, RSS privacy problem http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2006/08/23/bloglines-rss-privacy-problem/ From the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:34:17 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: phil http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2006/08/23/bloglines-rss-privacy-problem/comment-page-1/#comment-1946 phil Fri, 25 Aug 2006 19:37:50 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2006/08/23/bloglines-rss-privacy-problem/#comment-1946 I don't want to get into a hair-splitting contest, but this is an 80% Bloglines issue, in my opinion. I knew what the risk was when I gave the URL of a not-easy-to-find feed to Bloglines, but their UI is completely misleading. If their UI had been clear enough to indicate that all feeds that I added to their system would become publicly available, then I wouldn't have added it. I don’t want to get into a hair-splitting contest, but this is an 80% Bloglines issue, in my opinion.

I knew what the risk was when I gave the URL of a not-easy-to-find feed to Bloglines, but their UI is completely misleading. If their UI had been clear enough to indicate that all feeds that I added to their system would become publicly available, then I wouldn’t have added it.

]]> By: Charlie Wood http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2006/08/23/bloglines-rss-privacy-problem/comment-page-1/#comment-1945 Charlie Wood Thu, 24 Aug 2006 18:12:20 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2006/08/23/bloglines-rss-privacy-problem/#comment-1945 In fact this isn't a Bloglines issue, or even an RSS industry issue, but rather a Blinksale issue. There are very well-known, simple techniques for securing RSS feeds. Unfortunately Blinksale has decided not to use them and instead employs, "security through obscurity," which is to say, no security at all. In their defense, Blinksale isn't alone. Google Calendar uses the same mechanism to keep your events "private", as I'm sure do many others. In fact this isn’t a Bloglines issue, or even an RSS industry issue, but rather a Blinksale issue. There are very well-known, simple techniques for securing RSS feeds. Unfortunately Blinksale has decided not to use them and instead employs, “security through obscurity,” which is to say, no security at all.

In their defense, Blinksale isn’t alone. Google Calendar uses the same mechanism to keep your events “private”, as I’m sure do many others.

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