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?

  • sab@kbin.social
    17·
    2 years ago

    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.

    • klingelstreich@feddit.de
      2·
      2 years ago

      IANAL, but he GDPR is quite reasonable and if Lemmy did the right thing © it would not be a problem I think. Transferring data to a jurisdiction, like for example the US, where people do not enjoy the same level of data protection comes with risks for any eu citizen. Therefore, it is important that any new user of Lemmy/ActivityPub is educated on what’s actually going on here and the consequences of posting on Lemmy for their personal data. Article 49, 1a) of the GDPR provides an exemption for the rule this posting is about if

      the data subject has explicitly consented to the proposed transfer, after having been informed of the possible risks of such transfers for the data subject due to the absence of an adequacy decision and appropriate safeguards

      Why can’t we have that? Add a step to the signup process that explains the basics of how a decentralised community works: even if you sign up to a German Lemmy instance, Lemmy is a global community, your data may be transferred to any place in the world and that means that you won’t be able to enjoy the rights and protection you may expect on a German server. Click the “accept the risks” button to continue. Go to this link if you ever change your mind to stop federation of your content and attempt to remove it from any place it has already been federated to.

      Even cooler if we can somehow record the jurisdiction of instances and build mechanics that act on that information, e.g. during federation.

    • infamousbelgianOP
      1·
      2 years ago

      Wholesomely and fully agree… Just hope that Lemmy doesn’t get sued over it…

    • T156@lemmy.world
      0·
      2 years ago

      Although I would be curious about how GDPR deletion would work. Do all instances have to delete it, or is it just the hosting instance?

      • Ulu-Mulu-no-die@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 years ago

        It’s only the instance on which you create your account that has your personal data, that data is not sent around.

        Your comments are not included, it’s you willingly writing them, not some corporation spreading around your data without your knowledge nor consent, this is what the GDPR is about, data held by corporations that users cannot control in any way, or even have no knowledge about.