diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f33469b4..6ae8abe0 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 * adds icons from [Evolvere Icon Theme](http://franksouza183.deviantart.com/art/Evolvere-Icon-theme-440718295)
 * adds PHP variant to calc folder sizes
 * adds scroll position reset on location change (issue #279)
+* adds "hide if 403" option
 * updates H5BP to 4.3.0
 * updates jQuery to 2.1.1
 * updates json2.js to 2014-02-04
diff --git a/src/_h5ai/conf/options.json b/src/_h5ai/conf/options.json
index d7c2acc8..701dc728 100644
--- a/src/_h5ai/conf/options.json
+++ b/src/_h5ai/conf/options.json
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ Options
 	- ignore: don't list items matching these regular expressions
 	- smartBrowsing: use History API if available (no need to reload the whole page)
 	- extInNewWindow: open non-h5ai links in new window/tab
+	- hideIf403: hide files and folders that are not readable by the server
 	*/
 	"view": {
 		"modes": ["details", "grid", "icons"],
@@ -52,7 +53,8 @@ Options
 		"indexFiles": ["index.html", "index.htm", "index.php"],
 		"ignore": ["^\\.", "^_{{pkg.name}}"],
 		"smartBrowsing": true,
-		"extInNewWindow": false
+		"extInNewWindow": false,
+		"hideIf403": true
 	},
 
 
diff --git a/src/_h5ai/server/php/inc/class-app.php b/src/_h5ai/server/php/inc/class-app.php
index 989a5ac3..0b208153 100644
--- a/src/_h5ai/server/php/inc/class-app.php
+++ b/src/_h5ai/server/php/inc/class-app.php
@@ -80,9 +80,14 @@ class App {
 		if (is_dir($path)) {
 			if ($dir = opendir($path)) {
 				while (($name = readdir($dir)) !== false) {
-					if (!$this->is_ignored($name) && !$this->is_ignored($this->to_url($path) . $name)) {
-						$names[] = $name;
+					if (
+						$this->is_ignored($name)
+						|| $this->is_ignored($this->to_url($path) . $name)
+						|| (!is_readable($path .'/'. $name) && $this->options["view"]["hideIf403"])
+					) {
+						continue;
 					}
+					$names[] = $name;
 				}
 				closedir($dir);
 			}