Lemmy

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Lemmy (and the fediverse) and GDPR: a clusterfuck waiting to happen? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by infamousbelgian@lemmy.ml to c/lemmy@lemmy.ml

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So, I’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 repercussions…

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 don’t think there is jurisprudence regarding usernames, so that might be up for discussion.

Since the entire goal of the fediverse is “transporting” 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 responsible… 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 “in the spotlights” in the upcoming years.

I don’t like GDPR, and I’m all for the technological setup of the fediverse. However, I definitely can see a “competitor” (that is currently very large but loosing ground quickly) having a clear eye out to eliminate the competition…

What do y’all thing about this?

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[–] hardypart@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I think you, being an admin of a huge Lemmy instance, would be well advised to educate yourself on the difference between "public" and "personal" when it comes to GDPR compliance. All the data I create here is my personal data, no matter if it's my IP, my mail address, posts, comments or votes and the GDPR says that it's my right to decide what happens with my data and if it should stay public. The fact that I post something publicly doesn't make my data non-personal.

[–] wintermute@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think you, being an admin of a huge Lemmy instance, would be well advised to educate yourself on the difference between “public” and “personal” when it comes to GDPR compliance.

I'm quite well advised, maybe I`m using wrong terms as EN is not my native language.

[–] hardypart@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

OP said

Since the entire goal of the fediverse is “transporting” all data to all servers inside the ActivityPub/fediverse world, the data of a EU member will be transported all over the place.

and says that's a GDPR nightmare (and he's right according to my understanding of the GDPR).

You said:

sure, but no personal data like email/ IP

Which implies that email addresses and IPs were the only personal data that's relevant in terms of the GDPR, which is simply not true.

I think decentralized services like the Fediverse are a new challenge for the GDPR and that OP is absolutely right in expecting this to blow up one day.

Again, please stay educated and up to date about this whole topic. We don't want you to get into trouble for providing something beautiful.