[PSA] Lemmy account deletion is a mess
-
I think Lemmy should display a simple warning on sign-up that everything you post on the fediverse can't be reasonably ever deleted, because it's going to be shared to possibly infinite different parties.
-
Please, call me Steve.
Shut up, Steve.
-
The current delete function states:
"Warning: this will permanently delete your account. The deletion may not always federate to other instances."The first part, I'm almost certain isn't actually true.
The second part basically confirms what you're asking for.Yah. That could be stated explicitly on signup.
But to sum up what I said in other comments here; Not being able to delete things, is like the Internet's version of gravity. Be glad it works, and don't waste effort fighting it. -
Actually he is. He wants his account deletion to delete all his comments and federate that out. However if that were how it works it would be very misleading to users because they would expect their posts to be deleted across the fediverse when that wouldn't be the case. Some servers would retain that data and not comply with deleting all the comments.
-
Data privacy (the "right to be forgotten") I'd say is the main reason. Say you realise that you've built up a little to much linkable information about yourself over the years and don't want it readily available for whoever might want to make use of it.
-
Good use-case. Would it suffice to "unlink" the information in that case, instead of deleting it? I think that'd solve both problems. The posts and comments would stay in place for everyone to keep using them, but it'd say "by [deleted user]", so it's forgotten that you (or someone) wrote it.
I'm not sure. And we somehow need to present that to the user without overwhelming them with several options, delete account without data, delete account and unlink content, delete account and content...
-
I don't see why people get so riled up in the comment section of this post.
Is the original post a legit psa? Definitely.
Will this become problematic with European law at some point? Well at least it's going to be interesting.
Should we care? Seeing as lemmy development is partially funded by the European Commission, definitely!
Should we care for altruistic reasons? Also definitely. This place is supposed to be better than the centralized corporate social media to its users, especially also regarding privacy. It's good practice to set up new accounts every once in a while against doxing and seeing how much of the community on lemmy is built by people who are sensitive to their privacy this is sth we should respect.Should we break down in squabbles here of one instance against another? Please, if I want to hear "all people from place x are bad" I'd just switch on an election debate. Show that your adults. Take your peers and their concerns here seriously. Make something out of it when people raise legit concerns.
Thank you bonjour for bringing up this topic. -
Cheers to the lemmy.nz admin for misleading (very) their users with the futile idea of federation, all across the fediverse, to not just let this funny comment end up in a dead end locally.
-
But that's not what is being talked about. I don't think OP is expecting an all or nothing situation. You're talking like you've never deleted anything online
-
Yes.
Op isn't expecting an all or nothing. I'm suggesting they should expect nothing. All isn't even worth talking about.And yes.
I've never deleted anything online. Never had a reason to. If I ever imagined a reason I'd want to delete something, I wouldn't post it to begin with. Because I know I can't delete it. See how that works. So what if I was wrong, or embarrassing, that's part of being human, own you're mistakes and move on. Don't hide them. They are who you were. They are how you got where you are. They're responsible for who you've become. Take pride in the failings of your past. -
Probably a technical consideration (like what if they have an edit timestamp which would allow a dedicated person to find all the comments unlinked at the exact same time), a personal consideration (what if you actually want that information purged as thoroughly as possible), and a legal consideration (sounds like it violates the GDPR)
-
Tl;dr: Yes, it's complicated.
Hmmh. I think 1) just means it has to be implemented properly. But you're right. That sounds exactly like something a developer would do. Unlink the information and at the same time add a timestamp that immediately links it again
And I'm not sure about 3) I'd have to read the GDPR again. Afaik it just mandates the user is provided with the ability to do so. Not that it needs to be the default.
And 2) is kind of my question. I suppose a user who is about to delete their account, might not be super relaxed and ready to deal with the intricate details. I mean they could be pissed and want out asap. Or something happened and they need to get it over with, quickly. Either way, it's probably not the right time to bother them with 500 questions and make them learn about the consequences. Though... They need to do the right thing. Once their account is gone, and it turns out they would have liked to delete more (or less), that's not really possible any more (without manual admin intervention). So maybe it's down to: delete everything in any case, and accept that it has a negative effect on the content on the platform.
It also has to be balanced with handling abuse etc since malicious actors use the same features to cover their tracks.
But I'm probably getting way ahead of where we are. OP said deletion doesn't even propagate through the federated network correctly. So realistically, we probably don't need to bother with the details several steps down the line.
-
It doesn't matter. If someone believes they've linked too much and wants to delete it, they should be able to. If someone wants to delete their content for any reason they should be able to.
-
This is such a goofy take. Yes, obviously you can never be 100% there isn't some copy or archive laying somewhere, but wanting it to be deleted for 99% of the ways people would find it is reasonable. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
-
Honestly? No, they should t be able to blanket delete everything theyve posted on the off chance it's identifiable information
They should have the right to find that info and remove it, but I'm 1000% against people potentially taking down useful information from society and I do not care that people want to whine about their "right" to take their fucking ball back and end the game
So much useful info gone from Reddit because babies didn't want to keep supporting the bad site and now good luck finding it anywhere else
-
Exactly. And I sometimes find myself in the position where internet enshittification and content vanishing harms me more than it helps. So I'd like to balance this with the other side of the medal, where people might have legitimate interest to do so. But so far the argument has been "just because". And for me, that argument doesn't tip the scale to their direction. I still have tangible arguments not to over-delete. While the other side seems to be very theoretical.
-
How has anyone been mislead
-
The thing is: if I cannot easily remove the information I want from what I produce, I might as well delete everything including what is useful.
And I'm not speaking hypotetically here. Everytime I struggle to find the comments about how my day went in a sea of "deleted by user" comment, I feel like I should just delete my whole history and start afresh. If Lemmy doesn't improve that way, all the effort I put guiding new users and posting on small community will go pouf... Because I won't take it much longer.
-
Sure. Question is: How can we improve? Is this a symptom for another missing feature? Or do we want to not address it and just provide one nuclear option? Would you for example like a feature for ephermeral comments, which auto-destruct after a week or so? PieFed has something like that for posts. Or the ability to categorize comments so you can find them later on? Or an option to (regularly) wipe your history, so you don't have to delete the whole account...
That's why I ask for exact reasons, and not just a vague feeling about how the platform is bad... I mean it is for some edge-cases like this. And I don't see how Lemmy would improve on this in the near future. Seems some of the groundworks still don't work properly. But this doesn't have to apply to other Fediverse software.
And sometimes I struggle to relate. I for example don't post anything on social media that's very private in nature. So I don't really have the use-case where I post someting publicly on social media, but then I want it gone at the same time. I suppose we just post different things, because I can see how you wouldn't have your daily state of mind available forever.
-
No, they should t be able to blanket delete everything theyve posted
They should have the right to find that info and remove it
Which is it? Or do you just have a problem with being able to easily delete the information?
