Security-related question about a possible exposed credential

[Emma-NYL]

Hello,

My name is Emma, I am conducting an academic study on possible credential exposure in public GitHub repositories.

While analyzing this repository, I found a string that may represent a credential. I'm including the code snippet below containing possible leakage. To avoid exposing sensitive information publicly, I marked the sensitive information.

Could you please help clarify whether the detected string is:

1. a real credential, or
2. a placeholder / example value?

Thank you for your time.

---

Code snippet (sensitive values masked):

    ##API key for Votesmart
    # http://votesmart.org/services_api.php
    config.votesmart_apikey = 'YOUR_VOTE****T_API_KEY'

    # API key for NIMSP. Request one here:
    # http://www.followthemoney.org/membership/settings.phtml
    config.ftm_apikey = 'YOUR_F****PI_KEY'
    
    # Technorati API key
    # config.technorati_apikey = 'YOUR_TECH****TI_APIKEY'
    
    # Bing App ID
    config.bing_appid = 'YOUR_****_APPID'

Thank you in advance for your time - I really appreciate it!

Sincerely,
Emma

[dkearl]

Emma,

These are all placeholder values and not the actual API keys.

Thank you

Darren