Privacy in Photosynth
If you make a synth and accept all the default choices, your synth will be public. Everyone on the Internet will be able to find it and view it.
If you would like to prevent other people from finding your synth on the Photosynth Web site you can make it "unlisted". Unlisted synths are not securely private, they are simply not listed the Photosynth Web site.
This level of privacy is appropriate for some situations, but not for all. It may be appropriate if you are practicing with Photosynth and don’t want people to see your work until you’re happy with it. It may be appropriate if you have a synth of your family that you want to keep reasonably private. You can send the URL to your friends and family, and only people who receive the URL will be able to access the synth. Of course, if they forward the URL then whoever receives it will also be able to see the synth.
It is not appropriate for anything that needs to be securely private. In particular, Photosynth does not support secure encrypted access, and it currently has no way to restrict access to only a nominated set of authenticated users.
Tell Me More
Unlisted synths have the following differences from public synths:
- If you search our site you won’t find them.
- Internet search engines should not index them.
- Our "Explore" pages never list them.
- They never show up as "related" synths to a synth you’re viewing on our site.
- They are hidden when someone other than you is looking at your profile.
But – be warned -- they share the following important behavior with public synths:
- Anyone who has the URL can view the synth. If you forward the to a friend, and they put it in their blog, then everyone who reads their blog will be able to access your synth.
- You can embed them in a Web page. If you choose to embed an unlisted synth in a Web page, then anyone who visits that page will be able to see the synth.
Limits on Unlisted Synths
Photosynth is a free service. You are permitted 20GB of public synths, and 1GB of unlisted synths. Free users are also restricted in the number of views their unlisted synths can attract. Currently we are limiting unlisted synths to 500 views/month. If you need more than 1GB of storage for your synths, or you plan to embed your unlisted synths on your own Web site and suspect that any of them may attract more than 500 views/month, then you are a candidate for the
commercial Photosynth license. Terms of Use are
here.
Making Your Synth Unlisted or Public
When you create a synth you can choose whether it will be public or unlisted.
Logged-in owners can change their synths from public to unlisted and vice versa on the edit page.
