Warning: Lemmy doesn't care about your privacy, everything is tracked and stored forever, even if you delete it
raddle.me

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
  • lowleveldata@programming.devEnglish
    30·
    3 years ago

    It is reasonable that people should be able delete their posts / comments. However I don’t see how is this related to “privacy”. How can something you post on a public forum be private?

    • Lols [they/them]@lemm.eeEnglish
      11·
      3 years ago

      its the principle behind the ‘right to be forgotten’

      if you posted something to a public forum and changed your mind, deciding it shouldnt be public after all, you should have that option

      • __forward__@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        3 years ago

        Blockchains have the property of being append-only, so a blockchain is precisely what makes it impossible to delete transactions. That being said, in a distributed system, once the message leaves trusted servers, it is obviously also impossible to delete it.

    • CrateDane@feddit.dkEnglish
      7·
      3 years ago

      That is generally true, with exceptions like leaking someone else’s private information.

      But it implicates the adjacent “right to be forgotten” rather than narrowly defined “privacy”. This could be a real legal issue in the EU.

      • hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.fmhy.mlEnglish
        5·
        3 years ago

        It is. GDPR in the EU dictates that every user which requests their information has to get it in 30 days, and every user who removes their information has to be able to get it removed (I think the time span for that is even shorter, so more pressure for the server admins)

    • Rinox@feddit.itEnglish
      3·
      3 years ago

      Probably in the sense that if it’s not me that posted it, then I don’t have any way of truly remove it (which I think is against the EU’s laws).

      What I can think of right off the top of my head is revenge porn and doxxing. Furthermore there’s also the right to be forgotten.

    • rstein@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      1·
      3 years ago

      You can’t delete a mail you sent me, nor put your hand written letter to me in the bin. I can keep both and I can keep your name and addresses in my little black book. So there isn’t even that level of privacy in the real old fashioned communication.

      And communication over the Internet was always the subject of storage. Your mail may be on the backup tape of a mail server. Your usenet posting is on archive.

      So the assumption that the fediverse can forget….