Lemmy

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

submitted 2 years 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 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Personal and public is not mutually exclusive. My public posts are still my personal data.

[+] cwagner@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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[–] hardypart@feddit.de 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Nothing you posted here is personal data according to GDPR.

According to the very first paragraph I would say my posts and comments are indeed personal data:

‘personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person;

"by reference to an identifier such as [...] an online identifier"

My username is my online identifier here on Lemmy, isn't it?

But then the third-party apps also store that “personal data” (aka your public posts) on another server. That is what they do, post your posts to another server. Just like Lemmy.

They don't. They tell the Lemmy server to do so, just like your browser does. It's just a different interface.

[+] cwagner@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] hardypart@feddit.de 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yes, and what information is there that you posted relating to it?

My comment with my username above it. My comment is my personal data and I can be identified by my username, bam, personal data that is affected by the GDPR.

I'm by no means a GDPR pro, that's just how I understand all of this.

[+] cwagner@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] hardypart@feddit.de 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

GDPR Definitions:

‘personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person;

"Any information" includes texts I wrote as comment, the timestamp when I posted it and the titles of my posts.

"by reference to an identifier such as [...] an online identifier" includes my username.

How is this not personal data?