The downside of everything being federated is that it’s really easy to listen in. Make sure to keep yourself anonymous online!

  • Nougat@fedia.io
    0·
    19 days ago

    If you are doing anything that’s publicly visible, you’re not anonymous.

  • greybeard@lemm.ee
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    16 days ago

    Please don’t underestimate the ignorance and stupidity of the current administration and please stop giving them ideas that they would be unlikely to find on their own.

  • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    Probably, there are also bots on lemmy already bcz it’s grown quite a bit. They are definitely trying to direct the conversation as well.

  • ramble81@lemm.ee
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    19 days ago

    There are also instances that most likely exist just to suck up data for AI/LLM training. People were up in arms about it happening on Reddit and trying to torch their comments when here they’re giving it away for free and there are less bots because it’s a newer platform.

  • GluWu@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    19 days ago

    Dear Feds, My name is Walter Hartwell White. I live at 308 Negra Arroyo Lane, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87104. This is my confession. If you’re reading this comment, I’m probably dead- murdered by my brother-in-law, Hank Schrader. Hank has been building a meth empire for over a year now, and using me as his chemist. Shortly after my 50th birthday, he asked that I use my chemistry knowledge to cook methamphetamine, which he would then sell using connections that he made through his career with the DEA. I was… astounded. I… I always thought Hank was a very moral man, and I was particularly vulnerable at the time – something he knew and took advantage of. I was reeling from a cancer diagnosis that was poised to bankrupt my family. Hank took me in on a ride-along and showed me just how much money even a small meth operation could make. And I was weak. I didn’t want my family to go into financial ruin, so I agreed. Hank had a partner, a businessman named Gustavo Fring. Hank sold me into servitude to this man. And when I tried to quit, Fring threatened my family. I didn’t know where to turn. Eventually, Hank and Fring had a falling out. Things escalated. Fring was able to arrange – uh, I guess… I guess you call it a “hit” – on Hank, and failed, but Hank was seriously injured. And I wound up paying his medical bills, which amounted to a little over $177,000. Upon recovery, Hank was bent on revenge. Working with a man named Hector Salamanca, he plotted to kill Fring. The bomb that he used was built by me, and he gave me no option in it. I have often contemplated s-icide, but I’m a coward. I wanted to go to the police, but I was frightened. Hank had risen to become the head of the Albuquerque DEA. To keep me in line, he took my children. For three months, he kept them. My wife had no idea of my criminal activities, and was horrified to learn what I had done. I was in hell. I hated myself for what I had brought upon my family. Recently, I tried once again to quit, and in response, he gave me this. [Walt points to the bruise on his face left by Hank in “Blood Money.”] I can’t take this anymore. I live in fear every day that Hank will kill me, or worse, hurt my family. All I could think to do was to make this video and hope that the world will finally see this man for what he really is.

  • jqubed@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    I don’t think they really need to run an instance to conduct surveillance on the Fediverse. Maybe it makes things easier, but a lot of this is public anyway. Just because Google isn’t putting a lot of this in search results yet doesn’t mean it can’t be scraped by people who are interested in scraping it.

    • LostXOR@fedia.ioOP
      0·
      19 days ago

      Yeah but the traffic from scraping other instances is going to get noticed real quickly, whereas a small instance federating with everyone else isn’t really suspicious.

      • towerful@programming.dev
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        19 days ago

        Doesn’t even have to be an instance.
        Custom code that runs the pubsub protocol… Without publishing anything.
        Everything is open.
        Unless instance admins find the pubsub instance suspicious and defederate it, at which point it won’t be able to receive posts/comments

  • Little8Lost@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    There are some fedi scrapers.
    At least some people on Mastodon really noticed it after they managed to look up their name on chatGPT

    At least for a while (dont know the current case) some people bragged about being able to scrape fedi content or something

    Dont know it some of the scrapers are gov spies tho

    Gonna edit this after finding the saved messages that support my comment, needs probably a while ;.;

  • HubertManne@piefed.socialEnglish
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    19 days ago

    Im not scared. Ill lay it all out. im Hubert Manne. Thats H-U-B-E-R-T and I live at 1397 Prince Ave, Athens, GA 30606. My ssn is 123-45-6789. Are you bro enough, to come at me?