Page 1 of 1

Idea to protect privacy of website's visitors

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 7:44 pm
by welly
Hi
This question is mostly directed at Giorgio Maone (though someone else with the knowledge can also answer).

I'm building a site with an effort to keep it as respectful to its visitors' privacy as possible.

I just had an idea and wanted to ask you if it makes any sense:

Whenever we visit any page online, the URL address is/can be recorded by our Internet Service Providers (or someone else intermediate) is that correct?

So I thought that instead of giving to my files revealing names, I can give gibberish. This way, my visitors ISPs would not record them visiting, for example, www.example.com/i-like-anal.html, but only www.example.com/gi4b23ris34.html (just an example, my site is not related to porn-well not that much)

I would like to hear what you think of this idea. Does it make sense? Are there any drawbacks?

Thank you.

Re: Idea to protect privacy of website's visitors

Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 6:08 pm
by welly
Hi
Maybe I shouldn't say "this is directed at Giorgio".
I'm quite confident that others out there could give me a trusted answer.
Can someone please try to answer?
BTW I am serious about my question, if it's not very clear what I mean by it please let me know.

Thanks.

Re: Idea to protect privacy of website's visitors

Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 9:05 pm
by Giorgio Maone
welly wrote: So I thought that instead of giving to my files revealing names, I can give gibberish. This way, my visitors ISPs would not record them visiting, for example, http://www.example.com/i-like-anal.html, but only http://www.example.com/gi4b23ris34.html (just an example, my site is not related to porn-well not that much)

I would like to hear what you think of this idea. Does it make sense? Are there any drawbacks?
No, it doesn't make sense because the ISP can see (and even filter/change) also the content of your communications.
Much better is switching to SSL.

Re: Idea to protect privacy of website's visitors

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 1:17 am
by welly
Thanks Giorgio.
Please answer me one more question:

Say that I switch to SSL.
Would this mean that the URLs of visited sites also get encrypted ?
Or would the best option be to switch to SSL plus use gibberish filenames?

Re: Idea to protect privacy of website's visitors

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 10:41 am
by Giorgio Maone
welly wrote: Would this mean that the URLs of visited sites also get encrypted ?
Yes, it would. The only information still available to your ISP would be the server you're connecting to.

Re: Idea to protect privacy of website's visitors

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:00 am
by welly
Thanks!
I appreciate it.