2
[Discussion] privacy issues regarding Lemmy - I use arch linux FYI
iusearchlinux.fyiI want to preface this with the fact that I’m quite new to lemmy and using the
fediverse as a whole (this is my first account on a fediverse server), but I
have had my eyes on the concept for a while now. What I want to address is some
of the issues regarding Lemmy and I want to discuss solutions to addressing
those. I do want to note that I haven’t looked into the source for lemmy and my
personal source of information is this thread on mastodon
[https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/110522257089980041] which also talks about
the political issues with this platform (I’m going to be sidestepping the
political/humanitarian views the devs seem to have for this thread as I want to
keep discussion here purely about the privacy of the platform) the issues I want
to address here are related to how lemmy deals with “deleted” content. 1.
comments deleted by users are still visible to admins 2. deleted user accounts
still have their data remain on the instance. both of these are serious issues
concerning user privacy and also violate several laws around the world regarding
privacy (most notably the EU’s GDPR). additionally these seem to be easy (if not
trivial) to address from a code perspective so I don’t see why these changes
could not be made by someone familiar with the project and then used by
instances before they get merged in the main project (if they will ever do so).
I want instance admins to be aware of this particular issue (not just for my
home instance, but as many as we can) and thus want this thread to be one of
open discussion about how we would go about this. I’m just a random guy on the
internet; but I want to know what we can do about this at the very least and
maybe actually make some sort of difference.
thought I’d post it here as well for visibility
I personally consider this to be a potential positive for moderation’ sake. Let’s say someone posts illegal content and then quickly deletes it the post. Well, the illegal content would still be uploaded on the server hodling the instance hosts potentially liable for storing such content. This feature allows for that content to be found and removed from the server.
This one is the one which I could see the most problems with, especially if the instance requires you use an email to signup. This is something i’d like to have addressed in the software. This is definitely something to take into account when creating an account on a lemmy instance, especially those which require email or other personal information.
Perhaps we should have it state to not use your main email if you’re not comfortable with people potentially having it on our signup form?
I don’t know, that almost feels implied, especially since it says (optional) in the email textbox when signing up.
What if the post was removed publicly, kept for 30 days, then removed from the server entirely? Similar to the way the “trash” in your trash bin works on PC.
This feels like something that should be configured on an instance level, if we’re talking about storing data for a certain number of days before deletion.