There’s no way that isn’t going to be abused. Some marketing or tracking agency will setup a fediverse server and just collect all data like this for free. Or worse, take advantage of a friendica instance to bombard it with requests for data collection purposes.
Tools do not have morality or ethics, only people do. Some people use tools in a morally and/or ethically questionable manner, either for profit or because it amuses them.
…which is why design systems so that when using them we can account for the human element, right? Come on! We have centuries-spanning systems even industries built on that! Engineering, avionics, Yelp reviews…
Yes, but as long as you don’t reveal your identity, they can’t do much to track you.
They don’t have access to your IP.
Of course, it you’re using the same username over multiple services, or reveal identifying information (which is much easier to analyse now due to AI) they will be able to track you.
Oh I didn’t know that, that’s good. Though I think the point still stands since it’s not a guarantee instance admins will use it (unless it’s a default).
This is nothing new. Fire up any ActivityPub server and you can see everything over the wire. As a Lemmy admin of my server of just me, I can also see it in the UI.
There’s no way that isn’t going to be abused. Some marketing or tracking agency will setup a fediverse server and just collect all data like this for free. Or worse, take advantage of a friendica instance to bombard it with requests for data collection purposes.
Well yes, the whole concept of the fediverse is that of social media as a public service. All activitypub data is public.
So you’re agreeing with me that it will be abused.
Not them but yes but it’s not a feature of the system, it’s a failure of the humans.
What is it that you mean by that? Do you mind rephrasing your reply?
Tools do not have morality or ethics, only people do. Some people use tools in a morally and/or ethically questionable manner, either for profit or because it amuses them.
It’s the age old argument of “It’s not Communism that’s bad, it’s the human element.”
Speaking as if any system created by humans will ever be free of the human element, which is of course faulty logic.
Edit:
The downvote button is not an ‘I don’t like this’ button, trogs. Read the rules.
…which is why design systems so that when using them we can account for the human element, right? Come on! We have centuries-spanning systems even industries built on that! Engineering, avionics, Yelp reviews…
This feature has been available to all kbin/Mbin users since the beginning, btw.
I wanna say it was built into Lemmy originally as well but they removed it from the FE
It’s in lemmy but only available to instance admins
Yes, but as long as you don’t reveal your identity, they can’t do much to track you.
They don’t have access to your IP.
Of course, it you’re using the same username over multiple services, or reveal identifying information (which is much easier to analyse now due to AI) they will be able to track you.
My name is actually Ricky Rigatoni and I am King of the Brooklyn Mafia.
Is IP not logged anywhere in Lemmy/ ActivityPub?
I think server admins can access. It makes sense moderation wise, if for keeping a tab on alts for enforcing permabans.
Nope just server
If image embeds aren’t cached by your server they can be abused to gain IP, but that’s a hack, it’s not intended.
You can set a Lemmy server to proxy image requests
Exactly, that’s why I said for ones that aren’t cached. They can be cached, but it’s not a guarantee they will be.
Proxying is a separate option from caching. I think it was added in 0.19.5
Oh I didn’t know that, that’s good. Though I think the point still stands since it’s not a guarantee instance admins will use it (unless it’s a default).
What can they use that data for?
It would only be usable data if they could show personalized ads to the users. They can’t.
All they know is that Meldrik up/downvoted this and that, but outside of Lemmy they have no idea who Meldrik is.
If you think metadata is worthless, I would like to make you aware about Snowden and his revelations. Look them up.
This is nothing new. Fire up any ActivityPub server and you can see everything over the wire. As a Lemmy admin of my server of just me, I can also see it in the UI.
Wouldn’t you be able to see it by
curling the outboxes?