Take this as a fun project to improve your coding skills.
Show HN: Protect your links with a password
41–50 of 55 posts
Re: Show HN: Protect your links with a password
#42Would be more interesting if the link was encrypted client-side using the provided key. That wouldn't change the UX much and it means you can guarantee that the shared URL will remain private.
But anyway I'd expect if someone is naive enough to use this website they would also share the URL and password using a single channel, which would be the same as not "hiding" the URL at all.
Re: Show HN: Protect your links with a password
#43End-to-end encrypted, open-source, ~250 lines of code, password optional, and not just for links - https://plic.cc
Re: Show HN: Protect your links with a password
#44Great project! I too have an open source link shortener that supports password protected websites: https://maglit.me
So many link shortners eventually shut down due to people trying to obfuscate illegal stuff. Have you had any issue yet with that?
Re: Show HN: Protect your links with a password
#45> Keep your links safe and accessible only to authorized users
Is the operator of this service also able to access the links?
If yes, then right away this claim is not true and merits caution: the random unknown owner of this service can now harvest links which were deemed sensitive enough to merit a password to access.
Re: Show HN: Protect your links with a password
#46Great project! I too have an open source link shortener that supports password protected websites: https://maglit.me
So many link shortners eventually shut down due to people trying to obfuscate illegal stuff. Have you had any issue yet with that?
Oh yes, of course! I had to remove links several times. Even around 2AM at night.
I received so many phishing reports from Vercel and Cloudflare and even the Italian government directly. It was really tough so I had to add Google's Safe Browsing API check to check for any phishing links. I wish I didn't have to but no phishing reports since then.
Re: Show HN: Protect your links with a password
#47This has got to be a scam. if your data need to be secure then use authorization and authentication. If you need to keep a link secret then don’t share it with some random website. This isn’t rocket surgery.
Re: Show HN: Protect your links with a password
#48What's the biz model ?
I hear what you're saying, but people DO just put stuff out there for it to exist and aren't necessarily looking to monetize it. Crazy I know :)
especially when they’re using it to collect data from people who don’t understand why using something like this is even less secure
Re: Show HN: Protect your links with a password
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
I ran a similar service when In was in high school. People were using it to distribute links in public settings that were meant for small circle of folks. Lots of club newsletters were distributed this way. People also used it for selling files and things but as you've said it was trivial to defeat and only filtered out the least technical folks. It was surprisingly popular.
I, too, ran a similar service in high school. It also got weirdly popular, and then spammers started using it and the FBI sent a shutdown notice to my server provider while I was working at a summer camp (with no internet access) and all my sites got taken down for a week :(
I shut down for similar concerns (phishing/spam), albeit before law enforcement required me to.
I would certainly be running URLs through block lists, with a Report Abuse system if I were doing this today.
Re: Show HN: Protect your links with a password
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hear what you're saying, but people DO just put stuff out there for it to exist and aren't necessarily looking to monetize it. Crazy I know :)
You don't hear what they're saying. On HN, and especially regarding "infrastructure" services that you might depend on indefinitely for something, "what's the business model" isn't a question about how the service will be enshittified. Rather, it's a question of what incentive there is to keep a free service like this running. If there isn't one, then nobody should use the service, because it'll very likely get shut…
What's your alternative? Nobody wants a corporate solution, but they do want free services that fly under the radar. Of course not all of them last forever, but what better choice is there?