"don't like GDPR"? What's not to like? Best thing that came out of EU regulation in a long time. And as others have noted you seem to be misinformed about what it actually says...
this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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I also can't wrap my head around “not liking” GDPR
As a relevant example, seems like only citizens covered by GDPR will be able to request Reddit to remove all of their data from Reddit's servers since comment deleting tools and scripts are being bypassed, with loads of comments and even entire profiles getting restored by Reddit admins
Can you explain where I'm misinformed? I can surely be misinformed about the workings of Lemmy. However, for GDPR you will not "win" it with a simple TOS or something like that.
If even Google can't make their Workplace to follow rules in such a way that Workplace can be used according to the AVG rules in the Belgian (well, Flemish) schools, I'm pretty sure that just saying "it's in the TOS" is not enough...
But again, no expert so I hope that I am wrong.
And personal data goes really far. Even an IP-address is personal data. An e-mail address is personal data.
Thankfully, Lemmy instances do not transport this kind of information about their users to other instances!
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I'm not an expert in GDPR and will leave the technical side to those who are, but the fact that the EU actively present at the Fediverse with among others the @EU_Commission represented at their official Mastodon instance, I would be surprised if the GDPR was suddenly weaponised against it.
GDPR was written with the intention of empowering users over corporations. The Fediverse has the same goal.
Wholesomely and fully agree... Just hope that Lemmy doesn't get sued over it...
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all personal data from EU users must remain in the EU
Create your account on a EU server, problem solved.
Lemmy (fediverse in general) doesn't send account data away, and posts don't qualify as personal data, when you publish something to the internet, it's public by definition.
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IMO it's pretty much the same case as email. With email you send data to some remote server which may or may not reside in the EU.
I'm not really sure what argument you can make that fediverse apps but not email break gdpr.
Or even something as simple as putting your email on a public website that may be visited by someone in the US.
Neil Brown did quite a good write-up on the legal standing of the Fediverse late last year: https://decoded.legal/blog/2022/11/notes-on-operating-fediverse-services-mastodon-pleroma-etc-from-an-english-law-point-of-view
There's a section part way down about GDPR, but the answer is "it depends"
Thanks! The info actually makes sense. Also, do note that every EU country has their own specific implementation of the GDPR law with very small differences. So this is written according to the UK implementation, but the BE implementation might be just a bit different.
All complicated stuff...
What do y’all thing about this?
This is why I won't ever run any web service with public registration.
The people hosting an instance are responsible for the informed consent. So if you federate with anyone you need to make sure to inform your individual users about all of your peers, what data they process, and who's the contact for that peer.
This is of course impossible.
If anyone ever sues you, they probably effortlessly win the lawsuit.
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.
It doesn't work like that, think of your instance being a proxy to the fediverse
Is it? I read somewhere that data effectively gets "copied" to the different instances? But that might be wrong info :p
You're right. If someone from feddit.de subscribes to a lemmy.world community, the entire content of that community is going to be copied to the feddit.de server and that's the exact issue OP is referring to.
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But when a lemmy.world user subscribes to a feddit.de community, the entire community will be copied to the lemmy.world server, or am I wrong?
You are indeed wrong. The email and IP addresses and passwords for example don't get copied. I'm not well versed enough about how it works to go into more detail.
You are indeed wrong. The email and IP addresses and passwords for example don’t get copied.
I never said that IP addresses and passwords are getting copied.
The thing that no one seems to understand here is that all my posts, comments and votes and everything are my personal data. My data can be public, but it’s still MY data and I have the right to decide what happens with it and if it should stay public. That’s what the GDPR says and that’s exactly what OP is referring to.
If what you say is true, then... Email is illegal in the EU. EMAIL.
Yeah, no, GDPR, although well intentioned against large corporate entities that have all the power in centralized system, is a relic in the context of federated technology. It is both completely unenforceable, and also not really relevant.
If what you say is true, then… Email is illegal in the EU. EMAIL.
No, but there are actually certain things you need to take into consideration when it comes to GDPR and email.
What the GDPR says:
Data erasure is a large part of the GDPR. It is one of the six data protection principles: Article 5(e) states that personal data can be stored for “no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed.” Data erasure is also one of the personal rights protected by the GDPR in Article 17, the famous “right to be forgotten.” “The data subject shall have the right to obtain from the controller the erasure of personal data concerning him or her without undue delay.” There are some exceptions to this latter requirement, such as the public interest. But generally speaking, you have an obligation to erase personal data you no longer need.
What it means for email: Many of us never delete emails. There are plenty of good reasons: We may need to refer to them someday as a record of our activities or even for possible litigation. But the more data you keep, the greater your liability if there’s a data breach. Moreover, the erasure of unneeded personal data is now required under European law. Because of the GDPR, you should periodically review your organization’s email retention policy with the goal of reducing the amount of data your employees store in their mailboxes. The regulation requires you to be able to show that you have a policy in place that balances your legitimate business interests against your data protection obligations under the GDPR.
https://gdpr.eu/email-encryption/
I still don't see a reason why Lemmy shouldn't be affected by the GDPR and why it's probably not compliant in its current state.
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I‘m in the EU and if I would host an instance here anyway I‘d do it somewhere with less restrictive laws and ideally anonymous. Mostly cause I like piracy though.
Kbin.social and feddit.de are hosted in Germany. That's why I signed up there.
FWIW Hacker News just says it doesn't apply to them as it doesn't count as a service for just a discussion board.
But I think the right of deletion is a bigger issue than where email addresses are stored.
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.
Not all data is transferred to other servers. That's the point where I think you are wrong.
You mention email and IP addresses as examples of personal data covered by GDPR, but that data is not transferred to other instances, only the instance where you registered holds that data. So you would only need to care about the instance where you registered to be GDPR-compliant.
Ok, agree. There seems to be a bit of a discussion on if my posts are personal data, but if we say that those are public, then that is covered. Now there is just a simple question I have... What if I, as a EU citizen, knowingly subscribe to a non-EU, non-GDPR friendly instance and/or service. Is that ok? Should that instance then suddenly become GDPR friendly?
"Exchange with non-compliant platforms can be restricted based on a case-by-case analysis. ": I quote this from an article from European data protection supervisor website https://edps.europa.eu/data-protection/our-work/publications/techdispatch/2022-07-26-techdispatch-12022-federated-social-media-platforms_en. I think the platform will evolve to solve the existing issues such as The right to be forgotten.
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