The political views of the main devs are controversial but it doesnβt really matter since Lemmy is free and open source. No one owns or runs it. Only lemmy.ml specifically is run by the devs.
this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2023
-3 points (44.4% liked)
Asklemmy
43945 readers
49 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy π
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- [email protected]: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
What about privacy? Will the devs only get your info if you are a part of Lemmy.ml?
I don't understand this question. This is a public platform, there are no secret messages or info. What do you mean by privacy? Hide what from whom?
Look at my other comment with the link. Itβs saying that even if you delete your account the only thing that happens is that you canβt access it anymore but every comment and data is still in the database
What about The Internet Archive? Search engines cache? Copies made by other people? etc.
This is a public platform; don't share things you don't want to be shared. You can't truly expect anything being deleted forever everywhere.
I mean, we can absolutely want that. And data farming is bad. Just objectively. Having a conversation in a public area irl isn't consent to being recorded (not that it is always illegal to do so). And Why should it be on the internet? If the delete option doesn't actually delete anything, it should clearly reflect that. I have no idea why you would argue against user control of their data.
This is what the devs are saying: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/2977#issuecomment-1584337286
I don't want to argue, so I'll end it here.
You can fight for a better implementation, sure. Of course I would not be against that! I just personally fail to see the real issue with the way things are now on a public platform.
Yeah youβre not wrong
This is how every website on the internet works. Itβs why they say everything is permanent on the internet.
Some companies have to enforce retention policies for business and/or legal reasons, which means they actually have to delete your data if they say they will.
Some sites only "soft" delete things because it's simply easier and cheaper.
Regardless, I can't reiterate what you said enough:
Itβs why they say everything is permanent on the internet.
Nobody should ever once in their life assume that data they post online will be discarded, ever. Maybe it will, but never assume it will. Even if you run the server yourself and delete the data files on your server and send the hard disks into the sun, if the data was ever accessed, you should treat it as if it's been captured and retained somewhere.
Okay but you're commenting on a public forum, and didn't give anyone your name or any other PII when you signed up? Why are you worried about not being able to delete the things you're posting anonymously anyway?
I never said I was worried. Itβs just the general idea when actual companies usually have a data deletion policy in place. Having a data retention policy in place is usually a good look
Thereβs no corporation or company in the mix here.
If you don't want it there don't post it. The internet is scraped and copied and backed up. You can ask for it to be deleted but the company likely doesn't own every copy.
Let's put it this way:
Spez, reddit's ceo, used to mod r/jailbait. Did it matter to the users? It didn't. Why should this be any different?
Also, this is a public platform as much as reddit is. Reddit's TOS is horrible and yet people stayed. Lemmy is not worse than reddit in terms of privacy. I had to use a script/program before deleting my reddit accounts because reddit won't delete what's in there.
Yes. Instances can be hosted by anyone and the devs donβt have access to data on instances they donβt run.
According to the current readme: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy#features you will be able to delete all your post with account deletion. This also align with the warning text before deleting your account.
Also most instance are hosted by community members, and are community funded. I think most instance don't have the interest, or even the means to sell your data.
However, by the nature of OSS, everyone can modify the code when they start a instance (however, as per AGPL, they need to release the source code of modification, but I am sure there are people out there sneaky enough that can modify the code without other noticing). So theoretically, the admins can track you. Also by nature of the federation, your data will also be present on other instances that is federated with yours, but what they got should mostly be public informations (namely information of your post). And they don't necessarily need to delete that info after you deleted your account.
That being said, the privacy aspect of these small community-funded federated service should be order of magnitude better than most other social media site, where their entire business model is to spy on you and sell your data.
I haven't seen that accusation. There are some communists but no Nazis that I've seen. And I'll take a communist over a Nazi 200% of the time.
Another conservation I had recently said that lemmygrad is apparently run by communists and harbors tankies. If I had to venture a guess, whoever wrote what you saw doesn't understand the difference between nazis and communists, and that's where it's coming from. Or maybe there's also a nazi instance here somewhere, but as long as you're not part of their instance or an instance that federated with them, you won't see any of that shit
Conservation
Love your username
Thanks!
No, it's run by tankies, not neo-Nazis.
It isnβt run by them since the platform is open source. They run Lemmy.ml but other instances are free of their influence.
They also run the project, unless someone is going to fork it. I'm not suggesting anybody does or being critical at all though.
What would forking do? The code has no ideology.
Which is why I'm on Kbin instead, frankly.
See one of the two devs' essays here for his political views: https://github.com/dessalines/essays
Having said that, you're free to join a different instance (like the one I'm commenting from), if you have issues with that. I haven't personally noticed anything actually problematic though.
Edit: quick answer -> definitely not neo-nazis, and probably not relevant either
No youβre thinking of twitter
As others have said, so what? It's decentralized platform. If you don't want to interact with them, then don't. Nobody runs lemmy. It's a collection of instances communicating with each other. That is the beauty of it.
Apparently βa fewβ essays on communism is thousands of links and articles.
It's decentralized. It isn't run by anyone.
I found the link in my history https://raddle.me/f/lobby/155371/warning-lemmy-doesn-t-care-about-your-privacy-everything-is
The only data you give them is stuff you post on there. If it's sensitive information, don't post! I mean, obviously your stuff is going to get stored in the instance you post on. If you don't think whoever running the instance should have that info, don't give it to them!
No, it isn't. Here's some good background: https://karab.in/m/[email protected]/t/8618/I-m-happy-to-have-a-Lemmy-alternative-like-Kbin
No it's ran by a tankie, but I honestly don't care
No. That's a new one, though.
view more: next βΊ