Individual user cell phone photographs stolen via brute-force server attack

Brute Force is part of a large cache of around 900 photographs I obtained through a cell phone image server using a brute force dictionary attack. The server contained jpg files intended as an intermediary hosting site for early cell phones without image texting services. Images could be stored temporarily and users could send a link to recipients to send and receive photographs. I discovered that the service had not removed photos and low-resolution images were cached dating back to the early 2000's. Using a simple python script, I had a web browser cull images by sequentially trying every html combination of a five-character file length. The script ran all night until it was discovered and the server shut down the connection. The photographs did not contain metadata or other identifying information.

The cache produced a wide range of images - from the prosaic to the perverse. I am not interested in doxxing individual people; I am interested in the irresponsible nature of companies' lack of ability to provide privacy for our collective data. The amount of trust that goes into sharing is undermined by the hosting of our private moments in perpetuity and misleading features and services. Our data ripe for classifier algorithms, image-recognition and training processes, this project is but a small glimpse into a much larger pool of boundless data farming.