Google caches links to deleted and hidden photos of VK users

Hello% username%!

A series of leaks of personal data led me to a more detailed study of this issue.

If everything is clear with robots.txt, then what about secret GET parameters ? The holders in the comments were divided into two groups: some argue that in GET it is never possible under any circumstances to transmit confidential data, others that search engines should not index links received from bars and statistics systems. I think that both of them are right, however, there is one more option: there was a direct link, then it disappeared. Should the page be removed from the index? If the page exists - yes, if it does not exist - no. The answer is obvious, but not for all Russian webmasters.

Recallthis wonderful post . I think you already understood what I’m leading to. Vkontakte when deleting a profile does not delete pages with user albums, as well as the photos of users themselves. Obviously, when accounts were available, links to their albums were available for indexing.

We go to Google's search for images:



Of the results found, most of the photos are from groups or open profiles, however if you change the request a little , we will filter out the excess and find what we need:



Click on the photo:



Google will give a direct link to the image using the lower link , on the top we get where we shouldn't:



Links to albums with photos in the original size and comments on them.The DELETED questionnaire itself, of course, gives an error: “The page has been deleted or has not yet been created.”

The page with albums from the Google index should not be deleted - it exists, Google honestly clicked on it from the link from the account when it had not yet been “deleted”. VKontakte developers did not take this into account, restricting themselves to deleting the profile, banning access to the main page of this profile.

The search query can be modified in another way, having received at the output links to “deleted” photos or photos from hidden albums:

site: vkontakte.ru Name

Here is one of the images found in this way in full size:



By the link “ Image source” in Google, we get just an error - "Unknown error." Let’s take the user’s ID from the url of the picture and go to the profile page:



A profile exists, but the photo found is not in the albums (including photos from the page), nor on the wall, nor in the notes, nor anywhere else. The photo found was either “deleted” or hidden from prying eyes. Which did not stop us from finding it using the search.

I hope programmers from VKontakte read this post. If the user deletes the photo, it must be deleted, friends. Treat people humanly.

Upd: Pages with albums of deleted users have closed *. Well Done, Vkontakte! It remains to cover direct links to "deleted" images.

* thanks for reporting this Santiago26