Some time ago there was dismay on Mastodon (and Pleroma ?) instances about data scraping. Before that happened there were privacy concerned people automatically deleting their own toots, limiting them for example to the latest toots for thirty days. With Lemmy things are different since Lemmy is a link aggregator rather than micro blogging, and Mastodon has boost option (Called replay with Pleroma ?). However deleting your older comments (but not posts) automatically would be really nice for privacy reasons.
Deleting Comments is bad, since your Opinion or Knowlege might be important for someone or yourself in the future. A better way to decrease a digital footprint is the ability to post things anonymously. This comment should not be tied to my account. Anonymous posting also brings other benefits like a bigger engagement. I really liked FlowChat from @dessalines@lemmy.ml
What about having an option to “post anonymously”, and only mods of that community and instance-admins can see the author?
Anonymous comments would be best, but only if it’s integrated with upvoting/downvoting/flagging to provide personalized ranking of comments.
Anonymous posting sounds like a moderation nightmare
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Yes, agreed, therefore I mentioned deleting comments not posts.
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See also my other new comment about issues
Posting a URL or an image can show a little bit about yourself, but comments and a posted question will show a lot more. Leaving the old posts like they are makes some sense since people can benefit from reading it without a very high chance of giving up your own privacy.
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Maybe not that bad idea: password protected communities 🤔
I think if you don’t share any personally identifiable information (eg don’t sign up with your email), you won’t really need to delete your posts. if it can’t be traced back to you, and doesn’t contain personal information, then it isn’t a privacy concern is it? the question would be if lemmy stores something like IP addresses? if yes, use Tor pr a vpn, and that’s it in my opinion. no need to remove your contributions, I’m sure people appreciate them :)
My issues :
- data scraping and building a profile by others and abuse it
- risk for doxing due to writing style, grammar mistakes, and content of comments
I can confirm the doxing part. I don’t want to know, how much data my stalker and bullies would use, when I wouldn’t use tools like https://forget.codl.fr/ to delete my old posts on Mastodon.
interesting. I don’t think a profile would be much useful if it couldn’t be traced back to you, but as you say it’s possible to use writing style and grammar mistakes to fingerprint you. maybe use translation services that rephrase what you wanna say? or make intentional mistakes with some of your accounts? and have different accounts for different subjects, one for foss, one for politics, one for veganism, one for your job, one for your hobbies, one for more personal things, one for answering technical questions …
but yeah, do what your threat model asks for. but if you’re going to delete your account and leave, just know that it was a pleasant experience interacting with you and your content, ajz :)
