I'd argue the fediverse is probably not the ideal place for a privacy focused audience. There is no privacy here, only illusions of it. I can easily see who upvoted this post for example.
this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2025
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Depends on what entails privacy. What you describe could also be pointed out as transparency. Transparency is a good thing, right?
There’s no tracking or data-mining on Lemmy, which infringe on your privacy.
On Lemmy there’s only what you yourself willingly share with the rest of us.
Privacy and anonymity is not the same thing.
There’s no tracking or data-mining on Lemmy, which infringe on your privacy.
Not built into the Lemmy software, no. But there's for sure data mining and tracking happening, with how open the fediverse is. If you actually think there is none of that, you don't seem to understand how the fediverse actually works. Anyone can just hook up their server to the fediverse and start harvesting your data freely if they want to.
On Lemmy there’s only what you yourself willingly share with the rest of us.
That's more about discipline and applies to every social media. There's no way to say "I don't want to share this" on the fediverse. Even private messages are shared.
What you describe could also be pointed out as transparency. Transparency is a good thing, right?
Well, Lemmy isn't the one being transparent then though. Since Lemmy hides votes from its users, but shares them with other instances.
When you register on Reddit, you consent to being tracked. Possibly across the web via cookies. This is not the case with Lemmy.
Otherwise it’s illegal. At least in the EU. You must get a users consent if you want to track them.
Of course someone could collect data on your up/down votes and what you write, but it’s technically illegal to use the data.
Tracking mostly happens with cookies, which is not present in Lemmy.
“There’s no way to say I don’t want to share this”… Yes there is. Don’t hit the upvote button, if you don’t want anyone to know.
Votes are public. They are just not exposed to everyone by default. Only admins on Lemmy. But go to Mbin and votes are public.
Only admins on Lemmy
Mods can see them too
On all comms or just the comm they moderate?
The ones they mod
“There’s no way to say I don’t want to share this”… Yes there is. Don’t hit the upvote button, if you don’t want anyone to know.
Well yes, that's what I meant with the part before that.
That's more about discipline and applies to every social media. There's no way to say "I don't want to share this" on the fediverse. Even private messages are shared.
This isn't unique to Lemmy, every social media including Reddit allows you to prevent sharing something by never posting it in the first place.
I'm saying beyond that there's nothing more you can do. So Lemmy literally doesn't do anything more there than Reddit did.
For context, this was in response to this part of your comment (emphasis mine):
On Lemmy there’s only what you yourself willingly share with the rest of us.
Which sounds like you're saying Lemmy is somehow different and better than Reddit at this, which it really isn't.
I'm okay with people knowing I upvote stuff on !lego@lemm.ee
I'm not okay with Reddit forcing me to use their app to do data mining directly on my phone, and not allowing me to use a VPN (Lemmy.world has the same issue to be honest)
Since Lemmy hides votes from its users, but shares them with other instances.
That's one thing I loved when I was on kbin. You could always see upvotes and downvotes.
It depends what kind of privacy you mean. It is super easy to make a lemmy account with a throwaway email and access it via TOR.
If you’re looking for privacy in terms of the content you post, maybe something like SimpleX or Signal group chats are better.
Depends on your definition of privacy and threat model.
Compared to Reddit, it's already miles better.
Reddit's terms are annnoying, they own not just all the content you post but your identity that you use while on their site, really dislike how hard it is to delete all your posts and comments (deleting your account leaves them all up)
Is there an illusion of privacy? The persistent, unprompted belief it exists isn't an illusion. It's a user-generated fantasy.
“Patching a Reddit client” wtf? What good is that going to do you when the fox is in the hen house and the issue is server side, not client side.
That's because reddit has been cracking down on linking to lemmy or talking about it. Can't let the users discuss their competition
Blame that on the mods. I've been able to promote Lemmy on a few small subs where the mods are like "sure, fuck spez". On large mods though, mods are much more cautious, like they are afraid to be replaced.