Re: Browsing the cache

Mike,

> > > I would also know how to browse around the cache, I watched
> > the FAQ, and
> > > the archives and saw ppl asking for the same but I didn't
> > see any reference
> > > to any program or method to do that.
> >
> > We think thats a bad idea in general because the cache may contain
> > senstive information. browsing the cache may violate some users
> > privacy.
>
> I really think that's an ethical issue for the sysadmin concerned, and not
> really something that should be excluded from software just because it
might
> be misused. Taken to an extreme, that argument could justify losing the
> logging capabilities from squid, because someone might see what URLs are
> being accessed by people. The whole SYSTEM contains sensitive information.

I agree wholeheardely.

> Sysadmins have a huge amount of power to abuse privacy of users. We can
> intercept their email without them knowing, for example. What if sendmail
> encrypted the mail spool or kept it in some non-accessable fashion? It'd
be
> nicer for the privacy of users, sure - but would make our jobs a lot
harder
> when something was wrong.

Without being rude, I must say that it is right as the owners of the
hardware and the payers of the bandwidth.

I have 10's of gig's of possibly useful files which reside on *my* system
and I wish to be able to see what is on there.

> Anyone running a proxy for a large userbase is in a position of trust, and
> it seems a bit strange for anyone to try and take ethical decisions out of
> our hands - it's something between the sysadmin and the users.

Not in Australia anymore. Because of our new law, we (sysadmins) will be
responsible for what resides on our "system".

If there is kiddy porn on the proxy server, I don't just want to know about
it, I *need* to know about it and remove it.

> I'm really not trying to be start flaming people here - hell, if nobody
> WANTS to write a cache browser, then don't. If I need one badly enough
I'll
> work something out - but I just had to say something. I don't desperately
> WANT to browse the cache and see what people are doing, I just thought
your
> reason for not doing it was a little questionable.
>
> Please send flames to me directly - this is sort of off-topic-ish, but I
had
> to say it.

You are right to say it..... so hurry up and code one for me to use :)

ciao!

Regards,

Marc-Adrian Napoli
Connect Infobahn Australia
+61 2 92811750
Received on Wed Aug 11 1999 - 01:06:42 MDT