So, Iā€™m 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 donā€™t think there is jurisprudence regarding usernames, so that might be up for discussion.

Since the entire goal of the fediverse is ā€œtransportingā€ 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 ā€œin the spotlightsā€ in the upcoming years.

I donā€™t like GDPR, and Iā€™m all for the technological setup of the fediverse. However, I definitely can see a ā€œcompetitorā€ (that is currently very large but loosing ground quickly) having a clear eye out to eliminate the competitionā€¦

What do yā€™all thing about this?

  • sunaurus@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Public posts and comments are, well, public (and thereā€™s 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 šŸ˜…

    • nulldev@lemmy.vepta.org
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      1 year ago

      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 ā€œcollected personal dataā€. It does not matter if the data was originally public, and how/where the data was collected. Itā€™s 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.

    • hardypart@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Youā€™re confusing ā€œprivateā€ with ā€œpersonalā€. My data can be public, but itā€™s still MY data and I have the right to decide what happens with it and if it should stay public. Thatā€™s what the GDPR says and thatā€™s exactly what OP is referring to.

      • sunaurus@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        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.

        Thatā€™s exactly how it works everywhere, itā€™s 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 wonā€™t 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).

        • hardypart@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          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.

          Please back up this claim. Iā€™m sure not even the best GDPR consultants out there could answer this question with confidence at this point in time.

          For example, if you write a public blog post on some public blog service, and later delete it, then it wonā€™t be the responsibility of the blog service owner to remove your post from elsewhere on the internet.

          This is a completely different thing. Weā€™re 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 OPā€™s topic way to leasurely. The GDPR is a beast with teeth and itā€™s going to bite your ass if you donā€™t take it seriously enough.

        • hardypart@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Now if you want to change that, youā€™ll have to request a GDPR deletion from every instance you posted it to.

          Thatā€™s the interesting point. Do I really have to do that or should I be able to rely on my instance owner thatā€™s located in the EU to take care of that? Iā€™m pretty sure none of us can answer this question. Decentralized services like the Fediverse are probably a new challange for GDPR experts.

          • Scaldart@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Iā€™m 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. Itā€™s not like these people are getting paid for a service (aside from donations, in some cases); theyā€™re hosting in the spirit of the fediverse. Why would I pawn legal work off to them?

            • infamousbelgian@lemmy.mlOP
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              1 year ago

              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€¦

                • infamousbelgian@lemmy.mlOP
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                  1 year ago

                  Trueā€¦ But if it should come to that, I think that people will pull the plug with a 20 million euro fine above their headsā€¦ 20 million seams to be the number that works, if you see the reaction of Christian from Apolloā€¦

            • hardypart@feddit.de
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              1 year ago

              Sure, but I in the end itā€™s not their responsibility.

              You guys sound so confident, itā€™s not even funny. GDPR is a huge topic and everyone who already had to deal with it even marginally knows that OPā€™s fear is absolutely plausible. The GDPR doesnā€™t give a shit about causing major inconviences or huge workload for platform admins. Ever heard about the GDPR nightmare letter?

                • hardypart@feddit.de
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                  1 year ago

                  edit: In the end, though, of course this is my opinion. IANAL.

                  Same here. Iā€™m not sure if Iā€™m right, but neither should anyone else here be sure about this topic.

                  But I also know that essentially all serious issues with GDPR are because of companies wanting to violate your privacy, not because a user is using a product as intended.

                  What if the product is designed in a way that violates the GDPR? Again, Iā€™m not sure about that, just like OP. We will see how things will turn outā€¦ But as an admin of a large instance Iā€™d be carful for sure.

              • greeen_tomato@feddit.de
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                1 year ago

                It is a pain for sure if you have to deal with that. I had to read a bit about gdpr back in my old company and I always thought it is more about the protection of personally identifyable information (PII). Like name, IP Adress, email, etc.

                Iā€™m not sure if the gdpr applies to social media posts tbh. Another question is if a pseudonym would be regarded as a PII.

    • LollerCorleone@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      This. Federation doesnā€™t transfer private data of the user, just their public facing profile and posts. There is no expectation of them being private.

      • Monkey With A Shell@lemmy.socdojo.com
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        1 year ago

        The admin of a site, not only fedi ones but any site, can only control whatā€™s 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 itā€™s going to be an impossible task.

      • hardypart@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        ITT: People that donā€™t undertand the difference between ā€œpersonalā€ and ā€œprivateā€. My posts and comments are my personal data, even if theyā€™re public, and I have the right to decide what happens with it and if it should stay public. Thatā€™s what the GDPR says and thatā€™s exactly what OP is referring to.

        • AntY@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          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 Iā€™m making now would not be classified as personal data.