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> I’m a bit puzzled by that “But people are already doing it” argument. Yes, Mastodon traffic either is already or soon will be captured and filed permanently a
by kfsnd 4y ago
> I’m a bit puzzled by that “But people are already doing it” argument. Yes, Mastodon traffic either is already or soon will be captured and filed permanently as in forever
Correct. This is something I and several others have been doing for some time now. We have a private search engine that covers most of the Mastodon fediverse (including widely defederated instances), and there's nothing anyone can do about it.
Eventually, we'll give this data to the Internet Archive or put it in a torrent or something. It includes a decent amount of now-deleted content too.
Really, it's no different to what others, e.g. Pushshift, are doing with other sites. Except there's no opt-out. Anything you've already said is almost certainly in our data set, and it's there permanently.
> That’s extremely hard to prevent but isn’t really the problem: The problem would be a public search engine that Gamergaters and Kiwifarmers use to hunt down vulnerable targets.
Also correct. A couple of KFers we know already have access to search the data we've collected. It points them towards interesting posts or accounts to archive. People say some pretty wild things when they think they're not being recorded for posterity!
- akuchling 4y agoSo, among the first people you give access to the search are some known harassers? Sharp thinking, there.
- zmgsabst 4y agoI mean, look at the facts: - permanently archiving posts they know people don’t want them to - gave early access to known trolls - is now publicly crowing about how there’s nothing you can do about it - on a throwaway, because like most bullies they’re cowards Personally, I’m left wondering if there needs to be an organized crime investigation into KF, for organized harassment campaigns which violate local stalking or other laws, and the role people like this account play in orchestrating it. I think there’s be a certain irony to HN’s record of this comment being used to prosecute an accomplice in organized crime.
- BryantD 4y agoI mean, "kfsnd." KF. They're not exactly hiding who they are.
- zmgsabst 4y agoShrug. They’re on a throwaway because they’re too cowardly to admit who they are and face people like myself who want to hold them accountable for their bullying. I think they’re exactly hiding who they are.
- kfnvs 4y agoSeems prudent when you have people calling for you to be prosecuted as a criminal accomplice. ;)
- spanktheuser 4y agoNow now. Be fair. Some of us would be quite content with your ongoing persecution.
- zmgsabst 4y agoOf course — that’s the difference between us: I act in a way I can publicly own. You act in a way you know that you have to hide — because you’re aware that’s it’s anti-social.
- kfnvs 4y ago[dead]
- sebzim4500 4y agoI have no dog in this fight (probably will never use mastodon or this search engine) but I do find it ironic that this guy is being insulted for using a throwaway by people advocating for privacy on mastodon.
- zirgs 4y ago
- dmix 4y agoI'm amazed sometimes at the datasets KFers uses for doxxing. If you care enough, you just need to pay attention to leaks and store them all and you can make a mini NSA X-Keyscore. During the whole Cloudflare banning thing I remember coming across a dox that deanonymized someone via the Patreon hack dump [1], where a simple Twitter username match turned into a name + address (via credit card details stored by Patreon). Anonymity and OPSEC requires some serious effort and knowledge. [1] https://www.christianpost.com/news/patreon-hack-almost-14-gb-of-user-data-from-funding-site-dumped-online.html https://www.christianpost.com/news/patreon-hack-almost-14-gb...
- ThrowawayTestr 4y agoGenuinely, thank you for your service. A real archive doesn't delete a collection because of public pressure like "The Internet Archive" does.