I’ve just recently moved to Lemmy, and so far I’m enjoying it quite a bit. However, I’ve been thinking about the privacy issues whe DMing someone here.

Since this is a federated service, when you DM someone you have to trust both your server’s admin, as well as the recipient’s. Not that I particularly trusted reddit, but at least it was 1 corporation with (hopefully) some solid security procedures in place, and potential penalties for data breaches. Whereas in Lemmy, it might just be 2 random guys.

I’ve added an age key to my profile, in the hopes to make people aware of this issue. As well as giving them an option, if they wish to contact me privately.

I know, it’s not user friendly. But it’s the only way I could think of that wouldn’t rely on email + GPG. Does anyone know of a better solution?

EDIT: I also realise that not having signing capabilities might be an issue… So maybe reverting back to good ol’ GPG is a better option?

  • Kichae@kbin.social
    7·
    2 years ago

    Honestly, so many big tech companies have demonstrated time and again that they’re run managed and operated by overgrown children, you should not trust them to not be reading your DMs or your emails, or watching your Ring videos, or anything else.

    Honestly, just assume your smart fridge has someone in the other side watching you scratch your ass at this point.

    Businesses are not to be trusted.

    • GankTopPlz@kbin.social
      6·
      2 years ago

      The difference is that you can take reddit/Twitter/Facebook to court over violating your privacy, you won’t have anywhere near that kind of luck with fredeverse hosts. If you notice, there isn’t really a TOS, those are filled with regulatory agreements from governments that says what they can and can’t do with your data. Here we’re hanging with our ass in the breeze. Best solution right now if you want to receive DMs is to use an encrypted app and block all DMs here.

      • Kichae@kbin.social
        2·
        2 years ago

        You can sue the companies if you can prove specific violations. Knowing they can read your DMs and proving they have are very different things.

        I’m not saying you should trust DMs here. I’m saying you shouldn’t trust them anywhere else, either. Not without demonstrable e2ee.