• FailBetter@crust.piefed.social
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    17 hours ago

    I’m seeing great discussions around fediverse tools’ level of privacy.
    Can anyone speak to how different it is to trust meta/twitter/google in comparison to say the flagship piefed.social or some equivalent lemmy instance of best reputation? (I know this is more of a security Q, but yeah)

  • James R Kirk@startrek.website
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    2 days ago

    I’m going to be THAT guy and point out that while Piefed and Lemmy instances have much better incentive structures to be good to their users they are very much NOT private and on the default instance setup nearly all data collected is publicly available.

    EDIT: Many people in this comment section don’t seem to be understanding that “Lemmy” is not one website like Reddit. Each instance is it’s own thing entirely and there is ZERO guarantee than a given instance isn’t using hidden trackers. This is NOT a defense of Reddit or a criticim of Lemmy software which is very good. But it is a fact and you should be wary of the motivations of anyone claiming that “Lemmy” is private or similar.

      • webpack@ani.social
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        2 days ago

        I think they are trying to say that any instance could theoretically add hidden trackers to their own website, which is not the same as users putting in their own data.

    • Blaze (he/him)@lemmy.zip
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      3 days ago

      Reddit:

      • forces users to use a proprietary app full of trackers to collect data and sell it to advertisers
      • blocks VPN usage

      Lemmy/Piefed:

      • browser access is encouraged,
      • lots of third party apps, most of them being open source
      • allows VPN usage
      • James R Kirk@startrek.website
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        3 days ago

        Privacy is a spectrum. But when 99.99% of userdata is publicly available no responsible person could call that service “private”.

      • Skavau@piefed.social
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        3 days ago

        A detail, but I’ve been browsing Reddit on a VPN since OSA.

        So has much of the UK. So I don’t think their VPN checks are very good.

          • Skavau@piefed.social
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            3 days ago

            Yeah sure, I was just noting that if Reddit does try to block VPN access, they’re really bad at it.

        • Blaze (he/him)@lemmy.zip
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          3 days ago

          And people have been using third party client with their own API keys even after the API became paid.

          They’ve never been good at any kind of check, it’s just supposed to be annoying enough to bother the average user

          • Skavau@piefed.social
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            3 days ago

            Well I’ll just say it hasn’t once stopped me and I’ve bounced around a lot of IPs.

  • infeeeee@lemmy.zip
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    3 days ago

    I use most of them or similar alternatives, but this is the first time I hear about Migadu:

    After a quick lookup: it’s a service, not an app, it’s not on the cheaper side, the smallest subscription is 19€ per year. https://www.migadu.com/pricing/

    I pay for my mailbox.org email 12€ per year, I will stay with mailbox.

  • Pamasich@kbin.earth
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    3 days ago

    Is Lemmy/Piefed really that desperate for growth that lies are needed to raise awareness?

    Federation and privacy are incompatible. You can’t tell me Lemmy is private when Google can just get all your data for free with minimal work and without you ever getting even just a hint about it.

    • Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.socialOP
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      3 days ago

      If you post something to a public forum, obviously it’s public that’s no surprise to anyone.

      That’s not the whole picture, Mainstream social media are some of the worst offenders when it comes to privacy, they use trackers and share all your data with advertisers.

      Lemmy/Piefed doesn’t

      • tyler@programming.dev
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        3 days ago

        …those advertisers can literally set up a server themselves and collect all the data that is being federated. It’s arguably easier for advertisers to get your data from here than from Reddit or Facebook.

        • Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.socialOP
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          2 days ago

          If I anonymously host my own blog, is that blog of mine a invasion of my privacy? because anyone can read it and see what and when I post there?

          As others have said here:
          PieFed has no Google analytics, no Facebook pixel, no mobile app hoovering up all your phone contents, no telemetry, doesn’t track which websites you leave to, doesn’t require a real name and so on and on. It’s not even in the same league.

          • tyler@programming.dev
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            2 days ago

            I think you misunderstand what people are looking for when they say privacy. They don’t want any company having their data. If you set up a blog and post about yourself on that blog then yes, you understand you are revealing your private details and that’s a choice you make.

            You coming on here and telling people that a platform they are using is private when it isn’t is a completely different scenario. Those people reading here might have no understanding of how federation works. They think “oh this is like email, my email is private, this must be private as well” when in reality every detail is sent to every other node in the network, including votes. That’s not something you would expect a privacy conscious service to do. And pretending like it’s the same as a blog is disingenuous.

            Currently lemmy and piefed are not private and do not pretend to be. You are the only one saying that.

            • Blaze (he/him)@lemmy.zip
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              2 days ago

              They think “oh this is like email, my email is private, this must be private as well”

              They know they can’t read other people’s emails. They can read all the comments here even without being logged in.

            • Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.socialOP
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              2 days ago

              Do you think people don’t realise what the post on a public forum is public?

              What are people looking for when they say privacy? Privacy means different thigns to different people.

              For some it’s corporations not using trackers etc. to sell their data to advertisers.

              PieFed/Lemmy is a step in the right direction in this regard.

  • Rimu@piefed.social
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    3 days ago

    Some people are claiming the fedi is not private and anyone can see “all your data”. This is sooo simplistic.

    Yes federation means anyone can see your posts and votes which reduces privacy. But in comparison the privacy-invasive stuff that mainstream social media does goes way way beyond that.

    PieFed has no Google analytics, no Facebook pixel, no mobile app hoovering up all your phone contents, no telemetry, doesn’t track which websites you leave to, doesn’t require a real name and so on and on. It’s not even in the same league.

    • subversive_dev@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      PieFed is the libs’ great white hope to save them from the scary tankies and even worse, Asians

        • subversive_dev@lemmy.ml
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          2 days ago

          True, but Lemmy seems to be more stable and has a longer track record. Also, many of these so-called features are the piefed developer putting their thumb on the scale for the cause of liberalism

          • Skavau@piefed.social
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            2 days ago

            Piefeds fine now. Hasn’t gone done in weeks?

            Also, many of these so-called features are the piefed developer putting their thumb on the scale for the cause of liberalism

            Not sure how topics, feeds, events, scheduled posts, flairs, hashtags are inherently liberalism.

            • subversive_dev@lemmy.ml
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              2 days ago

              I have neither used it nor investigated it, just read some of the posts announcing it, and also heard about stability issues second hand. When I read the initial announcement, I remember a good handful of lib’d up features, but I do not claim that all are that way.

              In general, I support additional fediverse software, but piefed has a lot of “hostile fork” vibes. Based on the dogshit moderation I have received from the boosters of piefed, I will certainly not be recommending any of its servers to anyone I know

              • Skavau@piefed.social
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                2 days ago

                I have neither used it nor investigated it, just read some of the posts announcing it, and also heard about stability issues second hand. When I read the initial announcement, I remember a good handful of lib’d up features, but I do not claim that all are that way.

                Piefed.social, the largest instance by default blocks hexbear and lemmygrad - but other piefed instances may remove these blocks if they so choose. Dbzero already has a mirror server set up on piefed software.

                And yeah, it had issues a month or so ago, but it’s as stable as any lemmy instance since then.