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YSK: Your Lemmy activities (e.g. downvotes) are far from private (i.imgur.com)
submitted 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) by to c/youshouldknow@lemmy.world
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Edit: obligatory explanation (thanks mods for squaring me away)...

What you see via the UI isn't "all that exists". Unlike Reddit, where everything is a black box, there are a lot more eyeballs who can see "under the hood". Any instance admin, proper or rogue, gets a ton of information that users won't normally see. The attached example demonstrates that while users will only see upvote/downvote tallies, admins can see who actually performed those actions.

Edit: To clarify, not just YOUR instance admin gets this info. This is ANY instance admin across the Fediverse.

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[–] 8 points 3 years ago (3 children)

Well, I am not a developer in this field, so I don't know what's possible, and what's not. All I know is that this needs to be fixed one way or another, or this whole platform will fail. If our information is all available publicly, we will be better off just using Facebook/Reddit/Twitter - at least these platforms don't leave our data out in public view. We need to stop saying what's not possible, and instead talk about what is possible.

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  • [+] 6 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    So you think this is just my problem? No, this is the entire community's problem. Sticking your head in the sand and pretending like everything is okay is the mindset that has caused so many great freedom-oriented software projects to fail. If you are not on board with creating a better system for the future internet, then why are you even here?

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    I don't see a problem with leaving data out in public view. Hiding behind anonymity has already turned most of the internet into a dumpster fire. Maybe we'll see less trolls and hate publicly blasted with impunity from this. It will also put 'keeping private shit private' in the forefront of people's minds. What personal data are you worried about revealing on a glorified chat forum that you aren't directly responsible for publishing? edit: before this data was available mostly to the provider and anyone willing to pay for it. At least this way the data might become so publicly available it becomes worthless and the market dries up.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Anonymity is not the reason why many platforms have turned into "dumpster fires". Have you checked Facebook lately? People literally use their real names while lighting the whole dumpster on fire. No, privacy is more important now than ever. If I had to list all the ways our data is being used against us nowadays, I would exceed the character allowance on here. The short version is that historically, time periods were named after the materials civilization made their weapons out of (stone age, bronze age, etc.). That's the reason why the current time period is called the Information Age. Data/information is the biggest weapon we have nowadays, and that's why it's critical that we protect it with all means possible if we want to retain our freedom.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    Good point about FB (I've been off that shithole for years now and forgot). You know what, you're right. Our only real hope now is laws for a right to online privacy. The market needs to be destroyed and I'm just hoping we can brainstorm a solution at this point. As for Lemmy: I don't think it can be fixed. The data is there for the taking. At least it's not being horded by a site owner?

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Maybe there is a way to keep you votes hidden but there sure is no way to keep your posts hidden. The whole point of federation is to distribute your post to the other instances. You want eat your cake and have it too. You want to post publicly but stay in control of the message. You are not better off using BigTech because there someone can scrape your data as well. And you don't even know to how many parties your data is sent without your knowledge. There is no privacy in social media.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I am not talking about the posts. Of course those are public, as they should. There's a big difference between data I willingly put out vs. metadata and the likes.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago

    You mean it is worse here on lemmy with the unknown number of people who can see your votes if they are interested then on [BigTech-Site-X] where an unknown number of people can see your votes if they are interested? If you or someone else you know has a nice idea how to make votes possible without the information of who did it, then you are very welcome to submit your idea to the W3C for consideration. ActivityPub is an open standard and everyone can contribute.

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