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Comment by letrix | Hacker News Reader

Wasn't this because the photo was made "public" as in, shared through Google Photos?

If the doctor was not using a gmail account, the UI probably recomended to share it "with anyone that has the link" that is like public but protected by oscurity.

Most people don't realize that it is 99% like posting it on Facebook.

It isn't like posting it on Facebook. It is like emailing it, because most people don't have the link.

If it was a password entered into a form would you still consider it protected by obscurity? Both are the same level of security.

The URL may be logged by the ISP, university/company or whoever is providing the connection, antivirus, windows recall, browser history... But IIRC passwords are send using cryptography if the site uses https.

The URL is sent using http inside the https connection, so it's encrypted too. Your ISP shouldn't be able to see it unless they have root certs on your device.

It's not impossible that someone sees the URL, and if it's stored in an email the backups or local clients could store it plaintext, but I don't see how the URL is any more likely than the password to be sniffed during the connection itself

Its nothing like posting it on Facebook. Google doesn't have a recommendation engine that tries to share the image with random people, or a search that image will appear in, or a set of subscribed people who will be notified.

Its a random link someone would have to guess.

I can't read past what the paywall allows, but here's the nyt article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/technology/google-surveil...

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