Time Capsule privacy and features

[NewGenAdam]

Hi. I'm thinking of purchasing Time Capsule to go along with my new MacBook Air ^_^ .
But I'm not sure of its privacy aspects. It would be used as a family router, and possibly be used to backup other computers. But are the backed-up directories with my computer files available to be browsed on the hard drive?
Also, is it possible to mount a usb hard drive to the usb slot at the back for backup or general storage? If it is, what are the privacy settings for the content?
Thanks so much - I'm struggling to find this info on their store, or anywhere! I really appreciate it.

 

[SVT Amateur]

1. If you enable file sharing on the drive (which allows you to browse the Time Capsule drive) you can setup access without security, with security via a password, or security via accounts (user name and password). If you want others on your private network to not be able to browse your backup files you will want to setup file access with security and not give the password or user name and password out to other users. Even though you can setup file access via accounts where each user has their own personal directory that only they can see and access the backups are placed in a shared folder and this can't be changed. This means anyone who has access to file sharing on the Time Capsule can access your backup and via the files within.
2. Yes, you can add a USB hard drive to the Time Capsule but file access is done like in #1. And file access is universal, which means whether you have one drive or 10 drives (just throwing a number out there) hooked up to your Time Capsule a user will be able to access all drives if they have the password or correct user name and password for file sharing. You can't enable file sharing on one drive for one person and file sharing on another drive for another person. File sharing is very basic on the Time Capsule and you'll find that file permissions can't be changed.