• t3rmit3@beehaw.org
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    3 months ago

    Scraping public data is entirely different from collecting your contact history, location history, web browsing traffic, decrypting WhatsApp traffic, etc. etc. and on and on.

    Fediverse instances can also do most of this. They know your IP and email, and the stuff you reveal about yourself. You could de-anonymize many users with those 2 plus the info they share about themselves on here, with a bit of OSINT work. Any fediverse apps could also get access to contacts or other locally-stored info on your phone.

    “But I wouldn’t use that app.” Well then you wouldn’t be someone using Facebook either. People using Facebook would also be the people granting shady fediverse apps undue permissions.

    • helenslunch@feddit.nl
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      3 months ago

      Fediverse instances can also do most of this.

      Do you have reason to believe any of that is happening?

      You could de-anonymize many users with those

      Bruh your Facebook username is literally your first and last name. Same goes for most people on most platforms. I don’t particularly care about anonymity.

      Any fediverse apps could also get access to contacts or other locally-stored info on your phone.

      I’ve never used a Fediverse app that asked for any of that. They have no use for it.

      “But I wouldn’t use that app.” Well then you wouldn’t be someone using Facebook either.

      You don’t seem to understand the myriad of data that Facebook collects unnecessarily and without user consent. Do a search for Facebook Pixels or shadow profiles. They were just caught decrypting traffic from SnapChat. Most Fediverse servers are far too small to even bother with collecting and selling that sort of data.

      The two are not even remotely comparable.

      • t3rmit3@beehaw.org
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        3 months ago

        I’m not arguing they’re comparable; I’m the one out of the 2 of us arguing not to have any interaction with Meta apps, including via federation. I’m arguing that you shouldn’t be trying to sell a false sense of anonymity with fediverse instances. You said they’re “spy-free”, not “far less intrusive than Facebook”. The latter is true. The former is not.

        • helenslunch@feddit.nl
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          3 months ago

          I’m arguing that you shouldn’t be trying to sell a false sense of anonymity with fediverse instances.

          I never did that.

          You said they’re “spy-free”, not “far less intrusive than Facebook”.

          And I stand by that. Collecting necessary information for operation is not the same thing as spying.