ActivityPub, the protocol that powers the fediverse (including Mastodon – same caveats as the first two times, will be used interchangeably, deal with it) is not private. It is not even semi-…
Not sure the author of this piece really understands the concept of privacy.
If I choose to post something to any service - a Lemmy instance, Twitter, a Mastodon instance, FB, reddit - whatever. I’m making the choice to share that info.
A privacy invasion is when that service uses the personal data I’ve supplied in creating a profile/account and the meta data I created along with it and bundles it all up to create a shadow profile of me which they then use to serve me ads or sell to 3rd parties etc. That’s why using Meta products or reddit or twitter or just about any commercially owned service is a privacy invading nightmare and why the fediverse isn’t.
That’s true, but I would imagine (or hope) that any instance that started running privacy invading algorithms or harvesting data would be defederated by the rest of the fediverse.
I mean the apps rather than the instances. There’s nothing about the fediverse that would stop, say, Jerboa (to pick one at random, I’m sure they’re fine!) from scraping and selling your data.
It helps when apps like Jerboa are open source. The average user may not notice, but anyone can in theory check what their code does and report any violations.
Not sure the author of this piece really understands the concept of privacy.
If I choose to post something to any service - a Lemmy instance, Twitter, a Mastodon instance, FB, reddit - whatever. I’m making the choice to share that info.
A privacy invasion is when that service uses the personal data I’ve supplied in creating a profile/account and the meta data I created along with it and bundles it all up to create a shadow profile of me which they then use to serve me ads or sell to 3rd parties etc. That’s why using Meta products or reddit or twitter or just about any commercially owned service is a privacy invading nightmare and why the fediverse isn’t.
As far as I know there’s nothing to stop any given fediverse app being a privacy nightmare. But the fediverse itself isn’t.
That’s true, but I would imagine (or hope) that any instance that started running privacy invading algorithms or harvesting data would be defederated by the rest of the fediverse.
I mean the apps rather than the instances. There’s nothing about the fediverse that would stop, say, Jerboa (to pick one at random, I’m sure they’re fine!) from scraping and selling your data.
It helps when apps like Jerboa are open source. The average user may not notice, but anyone can in theory check what their code does and report any violations.
Very true