Comment on Lemmy votes ARE public, should they be anonymous?
thoro@lemmy.ml 4 weeks ago
I typically operate under the assumption that basically anything I decide to post on a public forum is not private.
Call me crazy, but I care less about the instance admins being able to see me vote history than regular users. For me the latter will produce a chilling effect on how I operate with the site moreso than the former, even if admins have more power that can be abused. I was already aware of the votes not actually being public, but I still think there’s a difference between having a motivated malicious user go out of their way to look (making an instance, looking on a different platform, etc) vs making it simple for lay users to see that info.
And honestly, if a solution could be determined to help make votes anonymous but still allow admins/mods to deal with bots/trolls, then I’d be all for it.
CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
Why?
eletes@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
All it takes is some API calls and some simple python scripting and you could data mine a person. Maybe they subconsciously only upvote LGBT posts. Maybe they downvote leftwing posts.
Then, oops, one day they post something that can doxx them and now they’re getting targeted ads or worst case a stalker or someone who wants to get them fired/thrown in jail.
Now imagine a machine learning algorithm or AI has done all the data mining and it took just a couple days to work through all users on lemmy.world.
If there’s any data that could be used to make money someone will eventually try it.
CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
The same argument could be made about your posts. Maybe a user tends to post things that aligns with a certain group, just as easy to track that (if not easier) for targeting.
Not to mention anyone with the tech to do this already can by creating their own instance so they can view votes.
skye@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
okay but you make posts with the expectation they are public. Votes only change a number, and are a way for you to show support/disagreement for something without broadcasting it to everyone.
If you want to broadcast it and make it public you can reply to a comment
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl 4 weeks ago
same thing you should teach your kids…
anything you put online can (and probably will) be used to identify you, as ad and ip tracking has done for a long time.
and once it’s on the webs, it’s always on the internet. no erasing pictures or tweets.
that’s how it has been, that’s how it’ll always be
thoro@lemmy.ml 4 weeks ago
Because if lay users can see how I vote, then I might start being harassed by people for daring to downvote them or daring to upvote someone. And may stay tracking my voting habits.
In which case, I’d probably stop voting.
Having a barrier to that info is better than no better even if it’s not impossible, imo.
CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
If someone tries to harass me about how I vote I’ll just block them.