Another update and possibly a solution for some case where posts were not properly deleted. Seems I jumped the gun on this and the restores haven’t been intentional - at least not in this particular case.
There is a limitation in the popular Powerdelete that apparently prevents mass editing. Here is a link to a new version with a build-in delay and some other alternatives:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ModCoord/comments/145fico/comment/jnl4xmr/
There are other reported cases where manually deleted post reappeared or other scripts have been used, so this doesn’t solve all issues but explains how posts that were both edited and deleted withPowerdelete weren’t properly deleted and reappeared after subs went back live.
Update: As some have pointed out: the restores can be rollbacks from the server issues or post haven’t been properly deleted due to subs being private during blackouts. Many have experienced the same issue, I can’t explain how this happens. I’ll just run the script again, try the GDPR request and delete my account.
Also worth noting: according to the ToS Reddit can actually do whatever they want with existing content, apparently we agreed to this when signing up.
Worth noting is that a number of US states also have strong protection laws. So, delete you comments manually and then, if you’re really trying to ensure that they delete your data, submit a data removal request that cites your locale’s law on data removal.
Theeeeeen in 6 months or so, send a data retrieval request to make sure they followed through… and report them if they did not comply. Might as well make them pay for that data if they can’t follow the rules.
Assuming that this is, in fact, not legal and if they have money that can be gone after, I assume that someone may start a class action suit. In theory, they’re worth multiple billions, so…
An individual probably doesn’t care much about whatever harm is done, as the damage is too small. But this is the kind of thing where a lawyer can walk away with a big payday by aggregating cases of many users and then getting a percentage of any payout.
I am not at all certain that it is not legal, though.
undefined> In theory, they’re worth multiple billions, so…
wen Lambo?
In the US, indicate that you’re in California for the strongest legal option.
This could be worse than anything else they’ve done. If they claim they own the data, are they then not responsible for it like newspapers? Is it in their terms and conditions they are free to do whatever with posted information, do they have the rights to edit users comments but in doing so become a content provider and therefore responsible. Kicking mods out doesn’t land you in court this seems high risk to be manipulating content. Doesn’t matter why it was deleted or edited it was deleted or edited who gets to decide what version to restore. Either you are hands off or you own the data and are responsible for it and upheld to media standards.
Edit: found a snippit of the terms and conditions in a German GDPR thread, It appears it is their terms and conditions that after you post it they can do with it what they like, even adapt it. Either way that’s not a reason to be gone.
ToS like that does often not mean anything, they can write whatever they like but it doesn’t mean they can legally enforce it. So if you are an artist posting a painting you made, reddit can’t just say ‘oop, it’s ours now’ same with text
There was that kerfuffle ages ago about u/spez editing comments in r/thedonald, iirc. It’s not like it would be that much of a stretch for him at least.
But it looks like from OP’s edits it may be unintentional. I’ll withhold my rage for now.
I picked up a permanent ban, after 15 years for saying ‘Go outside fatso’ to someone who said I couldnt read. Not my proudest moment, but there you go.
The reason I mention it, is that it adds a different dynamic if they are trying retain (and prevent me from editing) data which they hold about me. They might argue that doesn’t extend to post where I’ve written “cats > dogs” - but anything where I’ve refered to where I live, whether I have kids, what my political views are, are all clearly personal details which they are not allowed to hold without retaining my consent.
Clear contraventions on GDPR in EU.
https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-topic/data-protection/eu-data-protection-rules_en
You should bear in mind, PowerDeleteSuite doesn’t get everything. It can only see what’s in your reddit profile under New, Top, Hot & Controversial - there will be numerous posts that are too old with only 1 or a few karma that aren’t displayed in these lists. In particular, if you go through your top posts of all time, you might find some replies to these posts that you made that the script did not see.
The GDPR archive gives a full list of all the comments. What we need is a FOSS script that can use these csv files to get everything. Apparently Shreddit can take the csv files, however you have to pay $15 to use this feature.
I deleted all my content but I did it over the span of a few days, to let the different caches around reddit to update with the new void, and my content is still deleted (so far).
I said it before and I say it again: if you have the patience to do so then make sure you overwrite your content with chatgpt generated content, as the future AI that will feed on your post HATE feeding on already AI generated stuff. It makes the AI diverge.
edit: Filling your previous content with random generated content also make it harder to restore because it is harder to spot, compared with the comments which are simply “deleted”. Also, if all of it is really true, congratulation to reddit for demonstrating to everyone and specially the USA how useful the GDPR is for the citizen.
This is shitty of them to do but this is what people have been trying to tell us since the dawn of the internet. Nothing on the internet is EVER truly deleted
I think they may underestimate EU’s response here.
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
Yes but if they take the user name off can they keep the comment text up. For most comments they probably could unless you were putting your name or your job title and company or similar in the body of the text.
That’s debatable. Sure. my account doesn’t actually contain my name and address, but it contains almost 14 years of posts and comments. Through the years I’ve probably let slip enough small pieces of information about myself that a motivated person would be able to identify me. This would still make it identifiable information.
The data subjects are identifiable if they can be directly or indirectly identified, especially by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or one of several special characteristics
By definition commenting reddit users are covered, even if they haven’t posted anything otherwise identifying – but most have either way.
Yes it is, as pointed out here https://kbin.social/m/RedditMigration/t/34112/Updated-Reddit-is-quietly-restoring-deleted-AND-overwritten-posts-and#entry-comment-140833 and here https://kbin.social/m/RedditMigration/t/34112/Updated-Reddit-is-quietly-restoring-deleted-AND-overwritten-posts-and#entry-comment-141285
These links are just going to the same post we are on? It’s not linking to specific comments for me.
Looks like comment link redirection isn’t quite working. Let me just copy over the comment text for now:
Well, people have reported Twitter for failing to remove their tweets and places like the ICO are now actively investigating Twitter over this failure, see https://www.wired.co.uk/article/delete-twitter-dms-gdpr
Someone posted not too long ago that a person who was part of Twitter’s group over the GDPR - pre Musk - said the lawyers came to the conclusion that tweets were protected under the GDPR.
I believe it’s less straightforward than that. Under GDPR, consent can be withdrawn, you can’t give an irrevokable consent.
And from https://mstdn.games/@chris/110553477682106144
Presumably falls under right to erasure (art 17,19 of GDPR). You’ve withdrawn your consent, so if it isn’t exempt under legal obligation, public health, scientific research etc then that’s it, really. I guess there might be brave souls who argue that posts on Reddit sometimes don’t qualify as or contain personal data, but that would seem irrelevant unless someone is painstakingly anonymising the dataset on a case by case basis, which they surely aren’t.
Also, it looks like Twitter may be in some trouble, for failing to delete DMs under the GDPR, see https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/08/elon-musk-twitter-dm-deletion/
Surely, if twitter DMs fall under the GDPR, so do Reddit posts and comments (and note that it’s the content of the DMs, and not the personal identifiers, and that the DMs are requested to be deleted from e.g. receipients inboxes as well).
There is nothing of fact here - as I said in my comments before and I’ll say again - it’s a case-by-case basis, but as it stands, this is not covered under GDPR. Everything you linked to is pending actual decisions, as this area of GDPR is still being figured out. Yet, for some reason, people are stating it as fact.
as this area of GDPR is still being figured out.
Interesting. So does that mean you think it COULD be covered by the GDPR, perhaps from a court decision at a future date? That at least it’s a possibility, even if unknown right now?
this is not covered under GDPR
Interesting contradiction. I’d say there only three states: it is covered, it is not covered, and it’s unknown.
Anyways, here’s a fact:
UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office … told Veale that Twitter’s response “failed to comply with the requirement of the data protection legislation”
Of course you’d be right if you said it hasn’t been taken to court yet and that particular case lacks a court ruling to back it up. So if that’s your requirement for it to count, then that’s fair. Still, I would generally go with the guidance from the ICO here rather than try my luck in court, absent compelling reasons.
I think the case by case thing is addressed somewhat from the Mastodon post. Someone reposting a meme wouldn’t contain any personal info to erase under GDPR, but another post that’s an ask me anything with a person’s picture and other verifiable credentials would be. In the latter case I’m not sure you could anonymize the content without making it unuseful and uninteresting.
And it would take a lot of time and effort to review every post and comment and perform the anonymization. And deanonymization is a legitimate concern too. So I guess Reddit could try to play hardball here but it would probably cost them.
please don’t state things if you don’t know what you’re talking about. it absolutely applies. it’s a personalized account, with a personalized email address – this is the core of GDPR. it might not apply cause reddit is not within the legislation of the EU. maybe.
If they have eu users they have to apply it. That is why many places have ip lock outs that just prevent us from.seeing it.
However if they truly anonymise the content of a post they can keep it
I do - I work with this daily. It would be a massive uphill battle to even prove in a court that your whole post history is considered “identifying”. It’s a case-by-base basis. On top of that, your data could still be easily stored and simply no longer associated with your email (but still can be kept if the previous cannot be proven about identification). Then this would have to be tested, on a that same case-by-case basis, for every single user that made a request.
To quote yourself, “please don’t state things if you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
ah … simply no. also now you’re going into technicalities and specific scenarios – which might make sense in court, yet doesn’t disprove the principle per se. but maybe let’s agree to disagree, i don’t think this goes somewhere.
If a user is commenting they have an online identifier and are thus covered. If a user has ever referenced their relationship status, location or any physical descriptor they are covered. The GDPR – it applies.
That’s not what an “online identifier” is under GDPR. Those are RFID tags, cookies, device fingerprints, IP addresses, etc: https://gdpr-info.eu/recitals/no-30/
Usernames are online identifiers:
A non-exhaustive list is included in Recital 30
An individual’s social media ‘handle’ or username, which may seem anonymous or nonsensical, is still sufficient to identify them as it uniquely identifies that individual. The username is personal data if it distinguishes one individual from another regardless of whether it is possible to link the ‘online’ identity with a ‘real world’ named individual.
There’s certainly no chance this will backfire…
Perhaps delete and replace the comment with text that explicitly claims copyright on the deleted message and denies Reddit a license to use the deleted content? It would be good to get a legal eagle willing to look at the Reddit user agreement and content licensing and see if there is a legally literate way of denying them use deleted content once it has been submitted.
If you’re in the EU, submit a request to have it purged. If they refuse, that’s a violation of the GDPR.
I believe this is illegal for European (under GDPR).
The Lord of Snoo, spez has unleashed a dick move towards the platform.
Gonna love the Snoo Platform, Inc. panic mode in action.
Has anyone tried phoning a GDPR focused lawyer firm? I just did a google and they offer a “free consultation” I would like to get the facts 100% before raising my pitchfork.
They really want to fuck around GDPR? Are they really Musk level morons?
wait if the account is deleted can they still restore the comments?
In practice, it’s hard to know exactly how Reddit structures the data they have and what exactly a delete actually does and what backups they have.
That being said, it’s not out of the question that you could delete your post history, then your account, and reddit only restores your post history and not your account, leaving you unable to delete it again.
Hijacking the top comment to say: PowerDeleteSuite doesn’t get everything. It can only see what’s in your reddit profile under New, Top, Hot & Controversial - there will be numerous posts that are too old with only 1 or a few karma that aren’t displayed in these lists. In particular, if you go through your top posts of all time, you might find some replies to these posts that you made that the script did not see.
The GDPR archive gives a full list of all the comments. What we need is a FOSS script that can use these csv files to get everything. Apparently Shreddit can take the csv files, however you have to pay $15 to use this feature.
I’ve already given $30 to kbin as a fuck you to Reddit what’s $15 more
That’s beyond fucked up.
But also very predictable.
I think it’s safe to say this fiasco isn’t going anywhere without a class action lawsuit or something.
There is EU and GDRP which reddit have to comply with.
Reddit CEO is a moron thinking they can avoid getting slapped with a fine.
Just wait a bit then delete your data. They can’t keep an eye on it forever.
Quick and dirty Google search says GDPR law is complicated when it comes to backups https://www.itgovernance.eu/blog/en/the-gdpr-how-the-right-to-be-forgotten-affects-backups-2
Even if having backups of the data is legal, it seems highly doubtful that restoring data that a user intentionally deleted would be allowed.
