this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2024
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So how would that work with Lemmy? If a company demands the IP of users?
Guess that depends on the instance. Mine will sadly have a technical issue which corrupted the database.
For our instance we've answered that here:
Reddit might be forced to hand out IPs of users frequenting piracy subreddits: how does programming.dev compare?
edit: just wanted to share a great observation that was made by UlrikHD in our admin channel:
Instance owners would have way, way fewer resources and almost definitely need to just capitulate. Assuming they even had the info to share, though.
You can offer access to Lemmy over Tor
I believe the rules wouldn't apply. Usually when a company is asked to provide data and they refuse they are forced to shut down. But since Lemmy is decentralized, I believe if the cops were to ask someone to provide the IP of a user, they can just say no and shut down the server at least temporarily, and then possibly bring it back up under a new domain and ip.
IANAL but withholding evidence from a court order can hold you in contempt of court. I remember hearing a story of a person who was accused of having CSAM on an encrypted hard drive, and refused to decrypt it, and is in jail until he decrypts it. Just because you're a person doesn't mean you can ignore a warrant.
information itself is a liability. best to have a policy of 'we keep no IPs in logs, so are happy to hand over whatever'.. dump data the moment you dont require it
yeah, this sounds like a much more sustainable solution. Do it the way signal does it. Collect as little as necessary, and delete it as soon as you dont need it.
Just store what logs you need on a ram drive. The logs will be gone the instant the server shuts down and there is no way to recover them.
Downsides include : if any intrusion happens on the server, red team just needs to reboot it to wipe evidence.
If they have the root access typically needed to reboot a server^1^ they could also just wipe the logs without rebooting.
^1^: GUIs typically have a way to reboot without such privileges, but those are typically not installed on machines just used as servers.
Good to know. They should implement no log policies then
I looked into that guy somewhat recently, he was in jail for something like five years then eventually released. Kind of a sickening situation all around.
Imagine contempt of court but you don’t live in the US
With the federation does that also mean that the ip records are replicated? Because that would be a lot of parties that can be threatened, with only one required to give in...
I could be wrong, but I believe you only disclose your IP to your Lemmy instance.
Don’t browse lemmy with your naked IP. This isn’t the 90s. When using the Internet, wear a condom.
Ah yes, give your browsing history to the shady VPN company instead.
Although that would help in this situation.
Shady? I only use VPNs from known companies, like Sony.
A VPN either:
Logs access/usage so it can be given to authorities. (And/or sold/stolen etc)
doesn't log usage data and willingly accepts that some disgusting stuff will be done using their service.
1 might have to give browsing data if sued by a media company, 2 is ethnically bankrupt and shouldn't be trusted at all.
Doesn't mean their not useful, just be aware of who you are giving your money to and the limitations of their protection.
At most you will get some targeted ads (if you use "free" ones), compared to fines and jail, I say it's a good trade-off.
As long you don't do the "known illegal" stuff you don't need a VPN.
However if you upload copyrighted material a vpn is one of very many steps to ensure that the police won't get you. A VPN alone does not provide any security. It delays at best the police