Reddit user alleges California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) non-compliance/violation; and finds it difficult to delete posts and content on Reddit : reddit

this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023

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140

Reddit user alleges California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) non-compliance/violation; and finds it difficult to delete posts and content on Reddit (youtube.com)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by malloc@lemmy.world to c/reddit@lemmy.world

92 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Video description as of 2023-06-23 10:15 PDT:

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. Posts and comments may contain PII. Specifically, Reddit tells users that they must delete the content themselves, which isn't realistic if a user creates a lot of posts. Even if a user does delete their content, Reddit restores the content within a few days.

Video transcript:

2023-06-13 @ 15:15 PDT: user states he deleted all posts and comments
2023-06-16 @ 10:15 PDT (3 days later): user states all posts and comments have been restored
2023-06-19: user decides to submit a legal request under CCPA to delete content
2023-06-19 @ 11:07 PDT: user receives reply from "Reddit Legal Support" (RLS) which states they will delete the account but not the content associated with the account. It is up to the owner of the account to remove the content [e-mail contents reproduced below]

Reddit Legal Support (Reddit Support)
Jun 19, 2023, 11:07 PDT

Hello,

We would be happy to help you delete your Reddit account if you have one. Before we proceed please note:

 1. Account deletion is irreversible.
 2. Posts and comments must be separately deleted before deleting your account. If not separately deleted, the content of the posts and comments will remain visible and disassociated from any account. If you want your posts and comments removed, follow the instructions on our help page. 

Once the above mentioned information is removed to your satisfaction, please submit your deletion request by using your Reddit account and this form so we know it's really you making the request.

More information about account deletion is available in our Privacy Policy.

Kind regards,

Reddit Legal Support

2023-06-19 @ 12:02 PDT: user replies back to RLS stating it is unrealistic expectation for end user to manually delete and alleges violation of CCPA [reply reproduced below]

Hello,

If I understand your response properly, you are refusing to delete all data associated with my account. I believe this is illegal and in violation of the CPR. In this case the onus is on you, Reddit, to delete all of the content associated with my account. 

It is besides the point but last week I already deleted all of the posts and comments associated with my account. However Reddit has since restored most of the content.

It is untenable to demand all users to manually delete content when Reddit itself does not provide a self-serve mechanism to mass-delete content. Some users have thousands of posts and millions of comments. 

Just as a reminder, my CPA request to delete my account and all associated data was made on June 19th 2023 and must be completed by August 3rd 2023.

2023-06-24 @ 10:45 PDT: user has not received a reply from RLS. He decided to painstakingly delete all posts and comments while screen recording the effort. Video continues with the user manually deleting posts for his account (https://www.reddit.com/user/nucleocide). Then fast forwards to the end of the segment where the last posts are deleted
2023-06-25 @ 10:25 PDT: user discovers posts and comments are restored, again

User concludes video and clarifies why this is a violation of CCPA:

At this point it appears impossible to manually delete posts and comments on Reddit and expect them to stay deleted. 

By not deleting all posts and comments in an automated way there is no way to guarantee that no PII [Personally Identifiable Information] has been left behind.

For example ...

<user gives example of a comment from 6 months ago on his account which includes his real first name and last name. Screen capture shows the comment was edited recently>

Since there is no guarantee that every single post and comment is free from PII, Reddit must delete all comments and posts from an account upon receiving a GDPR / CPA request.

Reddit Discussion on "/r/videos": https://old.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/14je01k/reddit_may_be_violating_the_fucking_ccpa/

[2023-06-23 14:52 PDT] edit ~ formatting, fix title typo

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[–] NMSGalacticHub@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago

That's insane. I'm no lawyer but I've used the CCPA to get my info removed from a lot of those data-broker sites. It's always immediate, "Okay, we've removed your information." California better hit Reddit hard for this, and Europe too.

[–] Maraval26@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)

That is crazy. I spent hours one week ago deleting manually all my comments. I had an empty profile. After reading this post I checked my account and all my comments are back. That is crazy. What a shit company. I’m hesitant to submit GDPR request since I feel like I’ll lost account access with comments still visible…

[–] overlordror@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

I guarantee most power users are the ones who are upset about this change. Losing decades of content they created for free hurts reddit unimaginably. How many articles have you seen about SEO ruining Google and needing to append 'reddit' to searches?

Power users deleting their content ruins that search engine to reddit pipeline.

[–] Zardoz@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Tried this last night and my posts are back too. Thinking about editing each and replacing with some shit about spez. That will surely get it removed

[–] greenmarty@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago

EU GDPR - where to report if someone refuses to delete personal data.
List of institutions for each EU member.: https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en

[–] malloc@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Decided to expand on the original video and include a transcription of the events in the video. Hope this helps our visually impaired folks.

Personally, I find this disgusting. Hope Reddit gets litigated up the ass.

[–] Merulox@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Good work on the transcription, it must've taken a while to do.

[–] malloc@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

Normally, transcription like this will take a long time. However, since it's largely text based (e-mails, viewing reddit) and relatively short. It was pretty easy to transcribe to text. With the help of some macOS features like copying and pasting from video, it became a ~~non~~-trivial task.

I think I spent more time on formatting rather than on transcription.

[–] JackGreenEarth@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

@malloc Just so you and anyone else reading this knows, you can copy and paste text from images on any major OS, using 3rd party tools.

@Merulox

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[–] nevernevermore@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

Seriously, thank you for that extra mile. This is the kind selflessness that I remember on the old internet

[–] Techie@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I really hope the GDPR is put to full use here.

I'm curious though, what would happen if someone sent a GDPR deletion request to a Lemmy instance? The server admin would then delete the posts and account, but what if some other instances had defederated after the user made the posts, how would it be possible to make sure the posts are deleted from those instances as well? In theory that could be hundreds of servers. I guess the user would have to reach out to each instance?

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Good question. Yes, it would be much harder because you're basically shotgunning your posts all over the place when posting here. I would think it's pretty much impossible to make sure that every single instance of it is gone.

[–] TechnoBabble@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

As far as I can tell, GDPR is a defense against corporations who claim to own your data, and hold that data hostage. But it's not a infallible tool to scrub data from the internet.

Think about a tweet that's been screenshotted throughout the Internet. Twitter would have to delete the original post and and data they control, but I imagine they have no liability for the outsiders taking screenshots.

How GDPR applies to Lemmy may have to be explored in court.

But I'm just a layperson without specific knowledge of the law, so that legal framework may already exist.

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[–] xptiger@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Keep upvoting for algorithm. Keep updating to never die. Keep disseminating to those unheard. Keep EDUCATING. So people on Internet will eventually get ourselves the insight to ponder and make (mass and individual) actions on ourselves (cause only us the mass will steer a happening ~~and slap his stubborness~~).

Should never let this go down and covered.

I bet that this video/problem will never solve/succeed if people do not become considerate and woke but just read and passby from this. Protests seem not working to my perspectives. But, mass (compliant and infallible) actions ensures changes.

[–] AlphaLordTennyson@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Was this written by an AI?

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[–] witch_of_winter@fedia.io 5 points 2 years ago

If anyone here lives in California and has had reddit violate their rights you can file a complaint here: https://oag.ca.gov/contact/consumer-complaint-against-business-or-company

[–] Zuberi@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Call them out on LinkedIn. Bet.

[–] Rand_alFlagg@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I had to DMCA some of my stuff off the site to get it to stay off.

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[–] yeeter@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

Discord is worse. At least Reddit lets you delete everything you post. With Discord, if you are banned from a server, then there is no way to delete your posts in that server. That is insane to me in this day and age.

[–] oaklandnative@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yes, reddit let's you delete everything you post but then they secretly repost it all a few days later. I'd argue that's worse because they make you think it's deleted but it's not.

This behavior is demonstrated in the video and many other reddit users have posted similar complaints recently. I have personally experienced the same issue.

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[–] SpaceCadet2000@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

At least Reddit lets you delete everything you post

Only the last 1000 comments or so. Earlier comments get dropped from your user profile and become virtually inaccessible, only findable with a google search.

Also, comments from closed subreddits are inaccessible to you, but still there (i.e. when the subreddit reopens, they will become available again).

[–] HerrLewakaas@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (14 children)

This seems enough to me to sue them on grounds of violating the GDPR. Not sure where spez is going with this but paying GDPR fines will most definitely not do any good to reddit's profitability lol

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[–] ja2@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

This post says it pretty well, I'll just leave this here in case anyone wants an editorial.

[–] greenmarty@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Is there bot / tool to edit my reddit posts in batch ? Seems that editing could be harder to mass reverse as it requires someone to review if the edit was for better or worse.

Alternatively to keep on deleting my reddit posts every day ?

[–] wifixmasher@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (4 children)

PowerDeleteSuite on GitHub

[–] drphungky@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Unfortunately this doesn't get past the 1000 comment limit. I've found lots of my old comments still on Reddit. Does anyone have another solution?

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[–] megane_kun@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Alternatively to keep on deleting my reddit posts every day ?

Late to the game here, but that's the approach I've gone with. I got Shreddit, made a config file (containing the necessary detail for all my accounts), and made a shell script that I ran three times a day, likely until June 30.

Nowadays, my accounts look clean enough, and whenever some post or comment resurface, the next run of the script should take care of it.

And just on top of all that, I do check my accounts from a different browser I never use Reddit on. So far it's clean-looking, no posts or replies showing on any of them. But whether or not Reddit actually deleted them, I'm not sure. I'm never sure.

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