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Privacy and secret links

Site is public is the main public-access control. A non-public site requires an authenticated tinymash session unless a valid secret link grants the requested scope.

Maintenance mode is separate. Use it while the application is unavailable for normal use; do not treat it as the permanent privacy setting.

Search-engine directives

Discourage search engines from indexing the site adds noindex behavior without making a public site private. Author spaces have a matching profile preference.

On a non-public site, public-theme responses deny indexing, core robots.txt disallows crawling, and the SEO sitemap is empty. These outputs supplement access control; crawler directives are not authentication.

Secret links

Secret links provide guest access to a non-public site. A link can cover:

  • the whole site, including author spaces visible to that site scope
  • one author space only

They do not grant admin access. Search and Feeds respect the same granted scope when those plugins are active.

A superadmin can create site or author links under System > Security. Authors can manage their own author-space link under Profile > Publishing when allowed.

Expiry accepts 0 for no expiry or 1 through 365 days. The site default supplies the initial value for a new link and can be changed for that link. Generating another link for the same target revokes the previous token. Revoke a link immediately when it is no longer needed.

Link handling

A secret URL is a bearer credential. Do not place it in public pages, analytics, support transcripts, screenshots, or logs. Configure the web server to suppress or redact /s/ request paths.

Secret-link exchanges and authorized private pages use no-store, crawler denial, and restricted referrer behavior. Routed images remain authorized separately and use a private 15-minute browser cache.

Disabling an author’s public content suspends its link without discarding it. Deleting the author revokes the link.

HTTP Basic authentication

Whole-host HTTP Basic authentication runs before tinymash. It therefore prevents secret-link guests from reaching /s/<token>, the destination, or routed media.

Limit the extra web-server authentication to /admin when secret links must work. Protecting the whole host remains appropriate for a development installation that allows no guest access.