this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2023
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I mean, yes?
If you do not agree to the terms of a service, do not use the service. This is the case for essentially every system ever. You can go complain about it on Reddit or something if you like.
You'll find that in the ActivityPub specifications, actually, where delete messages are optional to implement.
The choice of how it implements ActivityPub's optional components you'll find in the Lemmy (or other Fediverse) source code.
Lemmy isn't my favourite platform. Not even close. I'm not sure it's even in my top ten.
What I am attacking is the rampant ignorance over a fundamental aspect of technology. A distributed system by its very nature has copies. Sometimes the copies last for a few milliseconds (think your router) and sometimes the copies last effectively forever (think the Internet Archive). And there is nothing you as the user can do to change this. There is also nothing that prevents someone from making the delete side of things not delete things. (Yes, this includes your router. How do you think "wiretaps" of modern digital communications systems work?)
In the case of ActivityPub this is even more egregious a level of ignorance. The entire point of federated software is to copy and spread content, so if you have even half a brain cell you're going to have to know that there will be copies of everything you've ever posted on servers other than the one you posted it to. And yet we have stupid twats like the OP whining about the GDPR as if it is even slightly meaningful in a distributed system that crosses outside of EU's jurisdiction.
I'm not saying that "you can't make this complaint because you made an account here". I'm saying "only an idiot can make this complaint because this is how all distributed systems work without exception". There isn't a single system out there that is connected to anything outside of itself that isn't susceptible at some level or another to exactly what the OP is complaining about.
This includes the router you have between you and the Internet at large.
EVERY distributed system retains copies somewhere for some duration. And ANY of them can be (pretty trivially) modified to just retain everything for as long as there is storage to hold it. If you want privacy you're going to need end-to-end cryptography, but that means no discussion sites like this.
So my objection to the OP's complaint is that it's just stupid. Because it applies to literally every piece of technology they likely use to post the complaint, but for some reason it's Lemmy that's being singled out.
I'm not saying that the terms can't be more transparent, because they absolutely can be.
But if you have become aware of this practice and you continue to participate, you have de facto agreed to it. You can of course agree to the terms and continue to criticize them, but you don't get to sign up for a soccer game and then claim that the rules against using your hands don't actually apply to you. If you don't want to face the consequences of how distributed services like this fundamentally work, don't use them.
I don’t agree with that reasoning. It’s entirely possible for someone to be personally accepting of the Fediverse’s privacy issues, but make an intelligent, well informed, coherent critique of them.
I don’t think “yet you participate in Lemmy” is an especially good answer, either. The same reasoning applies.