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How do you personally feel about anonymity in the Fediverse? (kbin.social)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I've been exploring the Fediverse for a bit, and I really like that different instances can interact with each other. But that also leads to some oddities, like how the culture on each instance treats anonymity.

On Reddit, most accounts were anonymous. Personally I always tried to keep any personally identifying information to a minimum.

On Twitter, many accounts are just [Firstname][Lastname], in fact many of the accounts I follow are because of who they are IRL.

In the Fediverse, these different cultures can interact with one another. Kbin users can interact with Mastodon users, etc. I'm just wondering how Kbin users feel about anonymity. Would you be distrustful of an anonymous user? Would you avoid posting personal information incase of doxxing?

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[–] TeaHands 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I grew up with the internet as an everyday part of life from my mid-teens onwards. Back then, we were taught to be careful about what information we give out online because there are no backsies and you can never be sure who you're talking to.

Not sure when that changed to "give out all your personal info and it'll probably be fine somehow" on a lot of these sites, but personally I stick with the former approach wherever I am. I'm not totally anonymous, far from it, but I only share what I don't mind being public.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yea, I grew up with the Internet in about the same time frame as you did. Basically my rule is that you behave on the Internet as you would any public space.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Depends.
On Mastodon, I do care quite a bit who I follow and why.
On Kbin/Lemmy, not at all, I'm just looking for interesting discussions around a topic I follow.

I don't see these things as mutually exclusive.

[–] Carnelian 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The only thing I’m unsure about is like, to what extent server admins can “see” that my different accounts are connected?

Like in principle, I’m fine with having a public facing account on mastodon that I can share with people irl, and then anonymous accounts on lemmy/kbin for various purposes.

But with everything being shared between services, is it feasible for someone to just like, host an instance and see what lemmy/kbin accounts are coming from the same IP as my mastodon?

I know large corporations are already building profiles and fingerprinting me etc., and I am disturbed by it and try to take steps to mitigate it. But I also don’t want be “exposed” easily to my peers (I have nothing worth hiding really, just appreciate having anonymous spaces to chat that are reasonably insulated from my public accounts)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

If your accounts are on different instances (with different admins who aren't sharing logs, it would be weird if they were) then I don't think there is anything to correlate beyond analyzing the writing style.

AcitivtyPub doesn't forward on metadata like "what IP address sent this".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah definitely agreed. I'm on Mastodon to follow people, I'm on Kbin to follow topics. And either way it's good to be anonymous on the internet

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Everything you post or interact with on any fediverse instance is public and practically not deletable. I'd suggest keeping anything identifying to an absolute minimum and thinking twice if what you post, boost, favourite, whatever could be used against you.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And is this not also just the case across the clearnet in general? I keep seeing posts about the fediverse and anonymity and I'm wondering what gave people the impression it was necessarily any better in this regard than the internet they're already used to.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same as on twitter.

On reddit only reddit knew who you voted for (so long as your preferences were set so that votes weren't public).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

On reddit only reddit knew who you voted for (so long as your preferences were set so that votes weren't public).

At the same time, the could sell or otherwise share that on a whim if they so choose. Given reddit's history of dishonesty, do you trust them to never do that? Do you trust them to be forthright if they did?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

In the abstract I would rather not have my up- and downvotes be public information, but in practice I don’t think anyone will have enough interest in me and my doings for it to matter.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Personally, I lean more toward being anonymous or at least as anonymous as you can be on the internet these days. It's just how I was taught to use the internet back in the day. It's kind of funny how attitudes toward the internet went from digital stranger danger to encouraging you to share as much of your personal life online as possible.

[–] small44 3 points 1 year ago

I don't care, I don't post about things that i don't want people to know

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Don’t trust anyone on the internet. Even if you known their name etc.

You’re putting too much emphasis on the anonymity and not enough on that we’re all basically strangers.

What I say should be self evident, or easily supported. If I can’t explain my rational thought down, that’s on me and your free to call my bullshit.

Just don’t be an ass about it.

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