Facebook Photos Slip Through Great Firewall, Arrive in China

Last time I looked, Facebook photos are not protected by any security other than the fact that their .jpg link is difficult to guess. (I.e. anybody can view them who has the link.) I was very surprised when I noticed that. Makes sense, cost-wise, I guess; it would be very expensive to integrate their CDN with their security model somehow.

I'm not familiar with FamilyLeaf, but I do wonder what will happen if more people/apps start exploiting that fact and start sharing photo links outside the facebook framework. If a page featuring the photo gets crawled, the "private" photos will be out on the web for all to find and see.

<RANT>I wish more people were selective about what photos they post to facebook, given that the privacy of one's content is not "all that". An acquaintance of mine just posted hundreds of pictures of young girls that she coaches in their leotards, some of them really embarrassing. Argh...</RANT>