this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
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Technology

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Federated services have always had privacy issues but I expected Lemmy would have the fewest, but it's visibly worse for privacy than even Reddit.

  • Deleted comments remain on the server but hidden to non-admins, the username remains visible
  • Deleted account usernames remain visible too
  • Anything remains visible on federated servers!
  • When you delete your account, media does not get deleted on any server
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I think an option for full data deletion would be nice for those who want it, otherwise people should also expect others recording their data, which can be published later on.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

That's a non issue. You just cannot expect to be able to delete anything you post on the internet. Even the great reddit with the awesome deletion feature cannot help you. You might be able to delete your comment there, but there is https://www.unddit.com/ https://archive.is/ https://web.archive.org/ and many others, where your comment will still be available.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is a big issue because in the EU you have the right to remove your data. It could make Lemmy illegal in the EU

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/pull/3208 there's already a pull request, it's being fixed soon.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I wasn't planning on doing any banking through Lemmy.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

After reading some more comments, I think I came up with a good analogy to explain this issue, and I wanted to share.

Think of websites like a bar that also has an open mic.

Now, when I go to a bar, I don't want to have to give the bouncers and staff my full name as well as my address. I also wouldn't want them to know that I just came, for example, from a store where I was looking for a vacuum, and then have them warn a vacuum seller about it. A vacuum seller who is then going to sit next to me, while I'm trying to have a drink, and show me a pamphlet regarding the "amazing vacuum" he has for sale.

Ideally, I can also look for a bar that will allow me to come in costumed and not show my face. Or I could ask the bar to delete footage of me at some point, and to not store my ID if I do have to show it to a bouncer at the entrance.

All of that is relatively feasible and within the realm of reason; and all of that are things that privacy advocates might advocate for.

However, what is not feasible, or within the realm of reason, or what privacy advocates tend to advocate for, is the ability for me to willingly go up on stage, say something on the mic which I immediately regret, and then ask everyone present to forget it ever happened and delete any footage they might have of it. No reasonable person would ask for something like that, because it is not a reasonable request.

That is how regular websites work. With federated websites, that becomes enhanced; it's like if the bar you're in has a camera pointed at the microphone, and transmits both video and audio directly into several other bars. So when you go up to that mic, you better make sure you're okay with what you are saying being made public and available to anyone.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

As a life long anarchist, I personally find raddle to be a fucking embarrassment. The elitist bullshit is right up there with other political anarchist sites like anarchistnews.net, they're all a fucking shit show and shows why anarchists will never accomplish anything.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If I wanted privacy, I wouldn't be browsing online.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's a poor answer to be honest. Total privacy is an illusion, but having the tools to delete some of the traces if wanted should be there. I would argue that the EU law about the right to be forgotten might want a word with someone.

I escaped Reddit, but i hold anyone else to a standard too.

Lemmy, do better or it wont end well. https://gdpr.eu/right-to-be-forgotten/

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In both services you are basically shouting into a giant megaphone. What’s so private about it? If you don’t want say it in public, don’t say it there.

If you need privacy there are much better tools available such as pgp encrypted email or encrypted Matrix DMs (a nonfederated Matrix sever would be even more secure but rather overkill).

Edit: specified encrypting Matrix DMs. I forgot for a moment that you can send unencrypted DMs over Matrix.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

The stuff listed in OP doesn't really seem like much concern. "What you put on the internet is there forever!" is completely true, and things like this should only make it more concrete that you can't rely on your service provider to delete information somebody else already archived.
With that being said, default privacy settings - at least on Kbin - seem pretty bad.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

In order for me to be offended, I'd first have to care about that opinion. I don't.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Not sure what the point of "Mastodon's" opinion is? Firstly, Mastodon is pretty big and decentralised, and it has no-one who really speaks on behalf of all its users. Lemmy is not a privacy central network like a direct messenger service. It never claimed to be privacy centric as far as I know. The point is to share posts in communities, and the more that see them, the better.

But it is federated which means posts do get shared to other servers everywhere, and deleting those is not as easy as for a centralised server. Whatever I post on any sharing type service, I consider to be public.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I don't think much of Mastodon as it is, so they're free to rag on Lemmy all they want.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I'm not sure what this has to do with mastodon all I see are some salty idiots on raddle moaning.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Eww. Well, there is a reason why I try and be extremely careful about what I post nowadays. Don't want to regret dumb shit I said in the future.

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