So, Iām kinda new to this Lemmy thingy and the fediverse. I like the fediverse from a technological standpoint. However, I think that, if we gain more and more traction, Lemmy (and by extend the entire fediverse) is a GDPR clusterfuck waiting to happen. With big and expensive repercussionsā¦
Why? Well, according to GDPR, all personal data from EU users must remain in the EU. And personal data goes really far. Even an IP-address is personal data. An e-mail address is personal data. I donāt think there is jurisprudence regarding usernames, so that might be up for discussion.
Since the entire goal of the fediverse is ātransportingā all data to all servers inside the ActivityPub/fediverse world, the data of a EU member will be transported all over the place. Resulting in a giant GDPR breach. And I have no idea who will be held responsibleā¦ The people hosting an instance? The developers of Lemmy? The developers of ActivityPub?
Large corporations are getting hefty fines for GDPR breaches. And since Lemmy is growing, Lemmy might be āin the spotlightsā in the upcoming years.
I donāt like GDPR, and Iām all for the technological setup of the fediverse. However, I definitely can see a ācompetitorā (that is currently very large but loosing ground quickly) having a clear eye out to eliminate the competitionā¦
What do yāall thing about this?
Maybe not IP addresses, but every post and comment you make is your personal data.
Public posts and comments are, well, public (and thereās no expectation from users that their posts and comments would be private, considering the nature of what Lemmy is).
The only way to not transport public posts and comments to the rest of the internet (including but not limited to other Lemmy instances) would be to completely disconnect an instance from the internet š
Posts and comments are not inherently personal data (although they might, of course, contain personal data).
A post of any sane length, though, likely is covered by copyright. Them being public is entirely irrelevant to that in terms of what others are entitled to do with them.
On the other hand, as you say, none of (gestures wildly) this works very well if people start leaning too heavily on that.
GDPR does not distinguish between public or private data.
GDPR handles public data through propagation. If you download public data that is GDPR covered, the data you downloaded also becomes GDPR covered. You are required to follow all GDPR regulations while handling the downloaded data.
Remember, GDPR covers almost all ācollected personal dataā. It does not matter if the data was originally public, and how/where the data was collected. Itās all covered.
However, Lemmy instances may still be exempt from GDPR as they are non-commercial: https://gdpr-info.eu/recitals/no-18/
IANAL as usual.
Youāre confusing āprivateā with āpersonalā. My data can be public, but itās still MY data and I have the right to decide what happens with it and if it should stay public. Thatās what the GDPR says and thatās exactly what OP is referring to.
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Thatās the interesting point. Do I really have to do that or should I be able to rely on my instance owner thatās located in the EU to take care of that? Iām pretty sure none of us can answer this question. Decentralized services like the Fediverse are probably a new challange for GDPR experts.
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You guys sound so confident, itās not even funny. GDPR is a huge topic and everyone who already had to deal with it even marginally knows that OPās fear is absolutely plausible. The GDPR doesnāt give a shit about causing major inconviences or huge workload for platform admins. Ever heard about the GDPR nightmare letter?
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Same here. Iām not sure if Iām right, but neither should anyone else here be sure about this topic.
What if the product is designed in a way that violates the GDPR? Again, Iām not sure about that, just like OP. We will see how things will turn outā¦ But as an admin of a large instance Iād be carful for sure.
Iām not supposing to have any answers either, but from a personal standpoint it seems rather selfish to even entertain the idea of making an instance owner do that. Itās not like these people are getting paid for a service (aside from donations, in some cases); theyāre hosting in the spirit of the fediverse. Why would I pawn legal work off to them?
You and I are not. But if a certain giant site that is currently making not theā¦ euhā¦ best decisions goes in to action with a large legal teamā¦
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You are able to edit and remove your posts on your Lemmy instance. Other Lemmy instances may or may not also reflect these changes, but your instance admin does not have any authority or responsibility to ensure that your previously public posts get deleted anywhere else in the world other than the instance they run.
Thatās exactly how it works everywhere, itās not a Lemmy specific thing. For example, if you write a public blog post on some public blog service, and later delete it, then it wonāt be the responsibility of the blog service owner to remove your post from elsewhere on the internet. It will be your own responsibility to manually request removal from other services which have copies of your post (like archvie.org etc).
Please back up this claim. Iām sure not even the best GDPR consultants out there could answer this question with confidence at this point in time.
This is a completely different thing. Weāre talking about the automatic replication that happens between the different Lemmy instances, not about someone copying your comment and posting it somewhere else.
Again, I think you guys are handling OPās topic way to leasurely. The GDPR is a beast with teeth and itās going to bite your ass if you donāt take it seriously enough.
This. Federation doesnāt transfer private data of the user, just their public facing profile and posts. There is no expectation of them being private.
The admin of a site, not only fedi ones but any site, can only control whatās in their reach. A user could ask as per the GDPR to have their profile and history removed, but data not in the control of the admin is not their responsibility.
Consider it from the perspective of a traditional site, if someone takes a screenshot of something you post and puts it up somewhere else the originating site has no means to control that or to remove the data from a third party location. The same issue has been fought since the dawn of the internet, people trying to erase past events that have spread far and wide. There are even proffesional services available to try and scrub such things, but in the end if all they can do is send takedown requests to another jurisdiction itās going to be an impossible task.
ITT: People that donāt undertand the difference between āpersonalā and āprivateā. My posts and comments are my personal data, even if theyāre public, and I have the right to decide what happens with it and if it should stay public. Thatās what the GDPR says and thatās exactly what OP is referring to.
Personal data according to gdpr is data that can identify you or be tied to you as an individual. Such things are e-mail addresses, phone numbers, names and so on. Posts and comments does not necessarily fulfill this. If you post your name, yes, but this comment that Iām making now would not be classified as personal data.