[Novalug] How secure are Listserv archives?

Peter Larsen peter@peterlarsen.org
Mon Jun 24 12:26:03 EDT 2019


On 6/24/19 11:57 AM, Beartooth via Novalug wrote:
> 
>     I monitor a fairly busy list by way of Gmane -- been doing it twenty
> years or so.
> 
>     By some fluke snafu, possibly on my part, the connection between the
> list and Gmane got broken. I sent pleas both to Gmane and to the list.
> 
>     After minor dithering, the current moderators discovered that Gmane
> keeps an archive of its own for each list it carries. This seems to've
> become an issue, inasmuch as they have no control over the Gmane archive.

Mr. Beartooth ....
Here's the "issue" I have with the above - a public mailing list is,
well, PUBLIC. I have NO expectation of privacy posting on this or other
lists. And if you think that the mailman owner is the only one recording
all messages, you'll be very wrong.

For instance, quite a few of us had more or less complete mbox archives
of NovaLUG since the time we joined when we had to migrate over to
firemountain. It's not uncommon that random people on the list keep
their own archives. And from there to making a public version of it
available, isn't far

Think about google's copy of the same archives. Without it, I couldn't
search firemountain as mailman's concept of a web-site is SO 1994 it
hurts - but google indexes all of it so it's easy to find old threads
this way.

So while I'm a bit curious what the issue is with a public archive of a
public list, there's nothing you can do once you invite the public to
you list. They can keep what-ever copy they get.  If privacy and control
is important, stop making it a public list, have a EULA for people to
sign when they do get access, and manage your own service where you are
100% in control. Add a few techniques to ensure that you can distinglish
copies from the real thing, and you're set. Without any of that - you
have a public list with more than one public archive out there.

So what's the problem exactly?

-- 
Regards
  Peter Larsen



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