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When I sign up under an instance, what information am I sharing to the host? (geddit.social)

submitted 1 year ago by Cayenne05dingos@geddit.social to c/lemmy_support@lemmy.ml

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Privacy drove me off reddit, I looked around for these answers but not sure where to come across them.

Am I sharing my IP address/ location with my host instance?
is there a log of my view history
are there general privacy concerns that I am not thinking of?

I do not want to be in a position where a Government creates an instance, and allows them to monitor.

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[–] terribleplan@lemmy.nrd.li 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Every time you visit any website someone will know your IP address. Unless very specific measues are taken that "someone" will be whoever operates that website.

Lemmy has features (I think they are optional) that will tell you that you viewed a post and how many new comments a post has from the last time you viewed it, that necessarily requires tracking. I cannot say whether turning this feature off disables the tracking or just doesn't show you that information without digging into the code, this is only local to your instance.

There is also likely to be some level of logging at the server and any reverse proxy layers that could, with effort, be used to figure out what you looked at with reasonable accuracy. Again, this is only on your instance. Some instances may not create/store logs, but it is usually important to do so to troubleshoot if things go wrong, especially with as immature a software project Lemmy is.

Any time you visit a website you are putting a large amount of trust in the site operator, your ISP, your DNS provider, etc. if state actors are in your threat model.

[–] aski3252@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yep, anytime anyone accesses anything on the internet, there are certain privacy concerns to be had. They are generally not an issue if you aren't being reckless, but there is still always a risk.

If you are worried about anyone knowing your IP, the only way to avoid that is to not access the internet at all. The IP address is the address which is used to send you data, which is a necessity if you want to access anything. When you access a website for example, you are asking the web server to send you a webpage which you then see on your screen, otherwise you could not see it. In order for the server to send you that webpage, it needs your IP.

It's as if you asked "If I order a package online, do they know my address?". Well yes, they have to know your address, otherwise they cannot send you the package.