I think most of us are aware of the shady history of Reddit when it comes to respecting privacy (and if not, here is but one example: https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/28/reddit-is-removing-ability-to-opt-out-of-ad-personalization-based-on-your-activity-on-the-platform/)

I’m wondering what you feel are the pros and cons of Lemmy in this regard?

On the one hand, Lemmy is structurally very different. There’s no single corporate entity building detailed behavioural ad profiles, most instances run minimal (or no) tracking, and you can choose an operator whose logging, retention, and analytics policies align with your risk tolerance.

Hell you can roll your own (yes, with black jack and hookers).

In theory, that alone removes a huge chunk of the surveillance-capitalism model that platforms like Reddit depend on.

On the other hand, your posts, comments, and votes are not confined to one database - they propagate across multiple servers, each with their own admins, logs, and retention practices.

Deletion is best-effort, not guaranteed. You’re effectively trusting a network of operators, not just one. I dunno whether that makes it better or worse.

Any deep thoughts on this conundrum?

PS: I’m leaning towards “don’t say anything you wouldn’t in a court of law” model these days. If its online - and you don’t own the infra - there’s always a risk.

  • Libb@piefed.socialEnglish
    10·
    9 hours ago

    Deletion is best-effort, not guaranteed. You’re effectively trusting a network of operators, not just one. I dunno whether that makes it better or worse.

    Any deep thoughts on this conundrum?

    I love the Fediverse for it’s respect of privacy, for its no-tracking and no-ads. And for that alone I would have zero desire to ever go back to Reddit or to any corporate-owned social platform, no matter how much more users and content they can have.

    Back then on Reddit, I did not care about deleting my content. I still don’t care about that since I moved here.

    I very regularly edit my posts, for correcting typos (adding informations) and stuff like that, but I don’t think I have deleted any, save a couple in the very early days that I published by mistake before they were finished. In other words:

    • I’m 100% fine with the idea that I’m not the smartest dude (nor the prettiest ;) and what I say can be goofy at times… even more so every time I don’t write in my native French.
    • Like you said, I tend to avoid saying anything online that would drag me into court… which may explains why I worry not much about deleting anything… which is a shame but not on Lemmy/Piefed or the Fediverse specifically (quite the opposite, I’m thankful to the people who created them and gave us access to these great alternatives to corporate-owned spaces), it’s a shame on our societies and they’re so-called respect for the freedom of expression.

    and in that regard, privacy is only one aspect of the ‘problem’, imho. Censoring of ideas and persons, and self-censoring, is at least as important. At least.

    After I started using the Fediverse, I quickly realized there were ideas and thoughts that were OK around here, and many more that were not. As well as ways of saying things. I also quickly realized I would rather not talk about some of those topics, and not use certain words… which, this time, is saying something about our own willingness to respect freedom of speech, and is saying at least as much about my own lack of courage, I suppose.

    Every time I notice this (self)censoring happening, and it’s not hard to notice or rare, I can’t but wonder in what way are we acting differently or better than what we denounce? Also, it makes me wonder if we really are that fragile?

    And it makes we wonder when this ‘childification’ (‘you must be kind to the others’, ‘you can’t use that naughty word’, and so on) of our conversations/debates/interactions and of our ability to confront ideas and people became our norm?

    I’m confident enough in my own ideas and personal values to not fear being confronted with opposing peoples and ideas… even when they are salty. To a certain limit, obviously. And when that limit is reached I don’t call for those people/ideas to be censored/banned: I block them, without feeling any guilt about it: I preserve their right to express their salty ideas while also preserving my own right to not be willing to listen to their salty (and often sad) ideas. (do keep in mind I’m only considering ‘legal’ topics being discussed in the limits of what the law consider a civil discussion: calls to any form of violence are not ‘salty’ anymore, they’re threats and they’re illegal, and they should be dealt with accordingly.)