Data security highcharts

Question

Just starting to use Highcharts. If I include data in an array within the javascript the data is available for anyone to download when they view the source. This would be the same when data is called, say, from a csv file. Is there a way of protecting the data against copying/download?

Answer 1

No, since HighCharts is a client-side JavaScript library, data available to it is also potentially available to the end user. There really is no way to "secure" it once the data reaches the user's browser, although you can use HTTPS, server-side authentication, etc to at least guarantee in principle that only the intended user receives the data.

If you need to visualize your data while keeping the actual raw data secure, the obvious solution is to render the data on the server and just (in the end) serve up an image or other static content to the user. But then you lose the nice, interactive charts.

You might be able to use Flash or Silverlight to retrieve the data, to make part of the process harder to reverse engineer. This is not securing anything, just making it a bit harder for a determined user.

On the other hand, a user can see the data anyway in the final chart. If they really want to download the data they could painstakingly identify each data point and create their own CSV file, right? You need to figure out what is good enough for your particular use case, and strike the appropriate balance.

Answer 2

Being that HighCharts is a client-side JS system, I don't believe there is a way to get data to it securely. If you just attempt an AJAX call to get data at runtime, a user can see that call and the response. As you said you cannot just populate a variable in the source, as it is visible there.