It depends. If the folder contains copyrighted material (movies, software), downloading it violates copyright law. If it contains personal financial data (credit cards, SSNs), downloading it could constitute possession of stolen property or identity theft preparation, which is a felony in the US (18 U.S.C. § 1028) and similar statutes globally.
The most effective fix is to disable directory listing at the server level so that the server returns a "403 Forbidden" error instead of a list of files.
Just because a directory is listed in an index does not mean the information inside is legal to access or distribute.
Technical Paper: Analysis of "Intitle Index Of" Dorking for Sensitive Directories 1. Understand the Search Operators intitle index of private verified
Similar to "private," this keyword narrows the search to directories or files containing the word "verified"—often associated with logs, account verifications, or validated datasets.
Intrigued, Jameson decided to investigate further. He started by analyzing the search term itself. "Intitle" suggested that the searcher was looking for a specific title or keyword on a webpage. "Index of" implied that the searcher wanted to access a directory or a list of files. "Private" and "verified" hinted that the searcher was looking for something exclusive or authenticated.
Use .htaccess (Apache) or auth_basic (Nginx) to force HTTP authentication for folders named "private" or "verified". It depends
The raw query intitle:index of private verified returns many false positives. Instead, use:
Add a blank index.html or index.php file to every folder to prevent the server from listing contents.
When combined, the query instructs a search engine to find poorly configured web servers that are publicly broadcasting lists of files contained within folders named "private" or "verified." The Mechanism Behind Exposed Directories § 1028) and similar statutes globally
: These are keywords appended to the search. The user is looking for directories that happen to contain files matching these specific words, such as "private_key", "verified_users", or "private_data". How Open Directories Occur
In Apache, use the -Indexes option in your .htaccess file or configuration file.
: A directory listing could reveal folders containing PII such as names, addresses, social security numbers, or credit card information. The exposure of this data can lead directly to identity theft, financial fraud, and severe reputational damage for the organization responsible for its protection.
If you'd like to explore this topic further, I can help you with: How to write secure robots.txt files