How to self host public services without legal trouble? (USA resident)

Submitted ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨matcha_addict@lemy.lol⁩ to ⁨selfhosted@lemmy.world⁩

I want to self host a suite of services and make them public.

What kind of services? Well, all kinds. Matrix, lemmy, bookwyrm, and I may think of others in the future.

The problem? I don’t even know where to begin from a legal stand point. Not only that, I am a barely legal immigrant (vulnerable to deportation) from a country that is not very liked by the gov. I am afraid to put myself in a vulnerable position and get more trouble than the typical US citizen.

Is there a reasonable way to be able to self host public services without legal trouble? Is there a resource I can follow for best practices to avoid issues?

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Comments

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acockworkorange@mander.xyz ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Uh… don’t? I mean, why rush it? Host it privately. What compels you to host publicly facing such high risks?

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Zak@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The EFF has a good document on this topic.

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luna@lemmy.catgirl.biz ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
This is also one of the biggest reasons for me why i stopped hosting things for strangers. My country is insanely backwards with when it comes to internet law. For example Mastodon (and others) caches media and text-contents of posts from remote instances on your own server, you are now distributing - you don’t even need to directly follow someone who posts media (attachments) or even just links to a website thats hosts unlawful stuff and you’re on the hook and considered just as responsible as the original poster. Insanity.

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- Smash@lemmy.self-hosted.site ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I guess you’re from Germany too?
  
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hperrin@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
In general, unless your service is pretty big, just following best practices for security and moderation should be fine. Once you get to a certain user base size, laws start kicking in regarding what data you can collect, how you can manage it, what responsibilities you have with regard to that data, etc.

That being said, seeing as you are not a citizen, I’d advise you to just provide the resources to someone else who can do all the hosting for you. That way they’re assuming all the liability.

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possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Assuming your in the US legally you shouldn’t have an issue. If you are illegal and are not suppost to be in the US self hosting services isn’t going to change anything.

Anyway I would not host any services at home as that’s a major security and privacy risk. If you are wanting to access your own personal stuff use a VPN or route traffic though a VPS. If you want to host a public server you can do so though a VPS where the risk to you is much lower. It also will have the benefit of having high availability by design.

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jerrythegenius@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I don’t really know anything about this, but good luck :)

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Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters

IP Internet Protocol

VPN Virtual Private Network

VPS Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)

[Thread #617 for this sub, first seen 20th Mar 2024, 02:55] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

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Fewer Letters	More Letters
IP	Internet Protocol
VPN	Virtual Private Network
VPS	Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)