should user avatars be saved in a private directory?

Question

I am building a community site and i'm currently writing a script that generates thumbnails and stores them on our filesystem.

Should I be storing the avatars in a private directory? or is it OK for that type of file to be in a public assets directory like a CDN?

why or why not?

Answer 1

After searching around and looking at other sites. Google Plus in particular does not save their avatars in a private directory.

In fact, their avatars are accessed from a public CDN and are served up and mixed in with actual search results.

So I guess the answer is no, it isn't necessary to make avatars private