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.
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