Ask Dave Taylor: Tech and Business

Wednesday

How can I protect my Web site graphics?

How can I protect my website html pages, graphics, etc. from being viewed, and/or manipulated by casual viewers? IOW, what do I need to set up so that if someone tries to go to "www.mysite.com/pics" (for example), they would get a "no permission" message?

There are two ways I can try to answer your question, actually. There's the far more complex question of how do you protect the content of your pages from prying eyes, and there's the simple question of how do you make it so people can't browse your "images" or "pics" directory.

Let's start with the first one. The essentially answer is that you cannot prevent people from manipulating your page, viewing the source HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc., and even right-clicking on a graphic and using "Save Image As..." to grab a copy of what you have.

There are ways you can make it more difficult, including a common snippet of JavaScript code that disables the right-click feature while someone is on your page, but as with everything else that the Web site developer lives with, this is a case of...