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.
i know posts/comments are public, along with everything, i thought that would be a concern if you’re shifting from reddit because its not, well, private? asides from posts/comments obviously, but them being trackable to a user alongside user information like age, gender, geographic location, IP address, etc.
yes, things like age/gender/location/etc are the things that aren’t private on reddit but mostly are on fediverse. your instance admin could see your IP and use GeoIP for location but that’s it, a simple VPN can solve that. and unlike reddit where they do targeted ads and resell data, fedi instance operators are mostly hobbyists and I doubt that really happens… if you’re really worried you could just use throwaway accounts with a vpn and remain private.