- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
- privacy@programming.dev
- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
- privacy@programming.dev
This video shows that Reddit refused to delete all comments and posts of its users when they close their account via a CCPA / GDPR request.
I don’t think they are actually restoring posts/comments. This whole thing is based on confusion about the blackout and many subreddits going private. Most people would think you can see all of your own posts and comments if you are logged in and go to your profile page, but if a subreddit goes private you cannot even see your own submissions in that sub.
So after the blackout ended and most subreddits went public again, people who nuked their account history are now discovering that there’s still posts remaining. They think these posts were restored, but they weren’t even deleted in the first place.
This is obviously a huge oversight on how Reddit handles your data and your profile page, but don’t attribute to malice which is adequately explained by stupidity.
That still makes it impossible for a user to ever delete all their comments, which is the CCPA complaint
The caching issue would clear up eventually, just give it some time. The CCPA process is slower, so probably the caching issue would be resolved by the time the courts heard it.
Private is different. What if I posted in a sub like r/BasicIncomeUSA that went permanently private during the blackout and never came back? 30 days, 45 days, still private. Worse, what if it’s a sub where the mods all delete their accounts - or they are unresponsive (because they quit using reddit without deleting their accounts).
So yeah, private means that reddit has to be the one doing the deletion, as a regular user may not even have the tools to delete otherwise.
If you watch the video, you would understand that this individual is deleting specific comments, then saw the exact same comments that he deleted return some time later.
Yes, but if you look closely all of those submissions were made on the javascript subreddit. It’s entirely possible that this sub was still private on the 24th, and went public on 25th. I don’t know for sure but that seems to be the most likely scenario.
Edit: Looking at the blackout tracker, javascript was still private on June 24th, which is the day that the OP of the video was manually deleting his submissions.
If the sub were private that time, wouldnt it have prevented him from being able to delete the comment in there in the first place (bc he wouldnt be able to see them when its privet?) In this case he was able to see them i guess because he was able to delete them specific. But am not sure
Yup, I couldn’t see my own comments or posts on subs that were private. When I tried to delete them via API/script it got me an error too.
However, there’s an exception. If you are a mod or approved user for a sub, then you can see and edit/delete as normal. I have never tried this scenario but maybe in this case when it go public again, any deletions are undone (because of the caching issue).
deleted by creator
The law doesn’t care how they handle the data or if a subreddit is private. If someone requests their data to be deleted, everything must be deleted.
Correct, which is why reddit must ultimately do it. Only they would have access.
It often happens to be both, though.
Which seems particularly likely in this case, given Spez & co.'s track record of being both malicious and stupid, more often than not at the same time…
I agree, blacked.out subs is why comments are coming.back on the profile page…but there is another issue about the 1000 post limit on the profile page. That means you can Google you comments but never see them on profile