When I click on a Google image thumbnail to view a larger preview, I understand that the image is hotlinked from the hosting site. In this case, when I view the hotlinked Google preview image, is my IP address recorded by the original site (the hosting site), or is Google's server IP recorded because Google acts as a proxy? I do not want my IP address to be exposed to other sites when selecting an image.
Add a comment
|
2 Answers
the image is hotlinked from the hosting site
No. I enable Network Inspector https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/network and I don't see any network activity outside Google's servers. I have a server that has been dead for years, yet if I search for "site:myserverdomain" in Google Images, I'll still see them and can still click the preview to enlarge, so it's obviously coming from Google's cache. I checked the Search Console for my current site and there's no way to even see the IPs of any visitors, at most just their country and whether they're using a mobile device or desktop.
Just for completeness sake, I check the nginx log while I'm clicking around my site's image search result, there's no activity during the test, not even from Google's crawler.
-
Thank you for your kind response. However, when viewing images from currently active websites on Google Images, the initial images that appear during a search are thumbnails provided by Google's cache server. When you click on these images to enlarge them, they remain in low-quality thumbnail form for a moment before quickly swapping to the high-quality original version. (The low-quality thumbnail image changes to a high-quality image). Isn't this caused by hotlinking from the hosting site? Commented Sep 5 at 12:16
-
Try right-clicking that high-quality image, if the URL is base64 then it's Google's, if it's the website's or their CDN then it's hotlinked– MartheenCommented Sep 6 at 1:17
-
Turns out the image src links(URL) are from the website or a CDN, which means they’re being hotlinked. So, my IP has likely been exposed to the original site hosting the images. I guess I should just sign up for a stock photo site and use that instead. Commented Sep 6 at 13:08
When you click on a Google image thumbnail to view a larger preview, Google often acts as a proxy, which means that the image is served to you from Google's servers rather than directly from the original hosting site.
Here’s what happens in this process:
Google Image Search: When you perform a Google image search, the thumbnails you see are hosted on Google’s servers. These are low-resolution versions of the original images that Google has indexed.
Viewing a Larger Preview: When you click on a thumbnail to view a larger preview, Google typically serves this larger image through their servers as well. Google fetches the image from the original site and then serves it to you, acting as a middleman or proxy.
IP Address Exposure:
- If Google Acts as a Proxy: If Google is proxying the image, your IP address is not directly exposed to the original hosting site. Instead, the original site sees a request from Google's IP address, not yours.
- If the Image is Directly Loaded: In some cases, if the image is directly loaded from the original site (which is less common), then your IP address would be exposed to that site because your browser is making the direct request.
In most cases, when viewing a Google image preview, your IP address is not recorded by the original site because Google acts as a proxy. The original site sees the IP address of Google’s servers instead. However, if Google doesn't proxy the image (which is rare), your IP could be exposed to the original site. Generally, Google prioritizes user privacy and tends to proxy images to protect users from directly exposing their IP addresses.
New contributor
Alireza Bagheri is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.