New to fediverse. Joined mostly because reddit has been annoying me for a while for it’s algorithm use and general admin stuff. Joining piefed was still a big leap since I have some interest in privacy and security on the internet and joining anonymous server felt a bit suss. Some stranger somewhere would have my email and be able to monitor everything I do and say.

Now, of course reddit does the same and I had no problem (well a little problem) with it. They not only have the data, but they also use it to advertise to me and most definitely sell the data forward. Still, there is a difference on a company with a public leadership whose names are known, and who have to follow laws and mark down their privacy notice publicly. If a server admin gets funny with the data, I’m shit out of luck.

Well I joined so obviously I accepted the trade of but came here to see what others thought. Surprised there was not a discussion about this already.

  • Rose@lemmy.zipEnglish
    202·
    7 days ago

    On the negative side:

    • All votes are public on Lemmy but that’s not made obvious to the users.
    • Your whole history is public with no control over that. If someone wanted to pull that data via the API, then feed it to AI and build a profile on you, they easily can.

    On the positive side:

    • Not every instance even requires that you give your email address to the admins. Some require it but allow to remove it after the fact (so if your account gets hacked or there’s a leak, that data might not leak).
    • While AI can be trained on your comments and build a profile on you, it’s not a given that it will be. On reddit, that’s done by default, with no way to opt out.
    • Every instance being independent means that even if the admins of one abuse their power or do things you disagree with, you can just switch to a different one.
    • Practically no access restrictions. You can read without an account. You can use a VPN. You can have countless alts. You can use any app of choice.
    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      7 days ago

      The upside with having a profile history is that it allows for transparency. Unless you are using some specialty platform there will always be an account history.

    • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      7 days ago

      Not every instance even requires that you give your email address to the admins.

      True, but a lot of instances like Lemmy.World use that as one of their criteria to decide if they should block an instance

      • Rose@lemmy.zipEnglish
        3·
        7 days ago

        From a scroll through their list of blocked instances, I’m not so sure. Judging by the names, it’s mostly not serious instances and the tankie instances known for harassment. One search for “lemmy instance no email” leads to reddthat, and that’s not blocked by .world despite being among the most active (thus more likely to attract spam or abuse according to that theory).