Fedi.Tips
Posting tips and answering questions about how to use Mastodon and the Fediverse 🌍
There are lots of guides on my site at https://fedi.tips. If you can’t find your answer @ or DM me, there’s no such thing as a silly question!
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Maintained by @FediThing, banner artwork is by @posiputt
🎂 Account originally joined mstdn.social on 16th Nov 2020
- 2 Posts
- 18 Comments
The image is just screenshots of the Apple app store, I don’t have any copyright over them so you don’t need my permission. All I did was put them together and label each screenshot.
(But thank you for asking first! 🙏 )
@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]
p.s. As for IP addresses, it’s impossible to use anything online without giving some form of IP address. That’s how the internet knows where to send stuff. It would be like trying to order something to be delivered without giving any kind of delivery address.
That doesn’t mean you have to give your own IP address, the Tor network and VPNs let people hide it.
@james @antdesros @AndikaCJ @Cal
That’s the whole point though: separating the app and the server is a really good thing.
When the app and the servers are run by different people using open standards, it gives end users the ability to combine a non-surveillance app with a server run by people they trust, or even set up their own server.
Services which spy on you through the app anyway and/or force the user to use a particular server, are taking away this power from the user.
Ahh okay… that’s an interesting point. It would be good to have more info on that.
The reason to believe otherwise is to compare the entry for Mastodon and BlueSky.
According to their app store entries, Mastodon collects nothing, BlueSky collects something.
This is the point of my original post with its comparisons of screenshots from app stores.
It is worrying that BlueSky is already collecting data they don’t need.
“(which Mastodon would then “collect”, too)”
No, they wouldn’t. The makers of Mastodon’s software and the owners of Mastodon servers are totally separate things.
Most people are on third party Mastodon servers which have no connection to the makers of Mastodon’s software or the official apps.
This is one of the points of decentralisation, to avoid having any kind of central control point.
The official Mastodon app is open source, outsiders with the necessary programming knowledge can see all of its workings at any time:
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-ios
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-android
If it was spying on people, it would be very easy for outsiders to spot it.
The same goes for most third party Mastodon apps as they are mostly open source too.
I think it’s because they’re not seeing this happening directly.
If someone came up to them in the street and started following them around 24/7, filming them, recording their location, demanding their financial and medical details, stealing their browsing history, asking if they are pregnant etc they would feel differently.
Because this surveillance happens within their phone, at some level people can pretend it isn’t happening.
Good grief… 😬
That is just dystopian. That kind of info could get people arrested (or worse) in countries with repressive regimes. 😞
None that I’m aware of, but there are so many apps available that it’s difficult to know about all of them.
Main thing is to check an app’s app store privacy section before you install an app (which is where the info in this post came from).
Yup, totally agree.
BlueSky have set themselves up to enshittify by being a for-profit backed by VC money. They’ll tempt people in and then gradually ramp up the problematic behaviour as the drive for profit increases.
That’s why I’m steering clear of BlueSky, they seem to want to turn themselves into another Meta.
No, not everyone knows.
For example someone replied to this post as follows:
It is definitely not as bad, but it’s a bit weird they are collecting anything as they are supposed to be decentralised.
Yup, they’re all Apple app store screenshots taken today. For example if you search for instagram app store you will get a link to https://apps.apple.com/app/instagram/id389801252
Yeah… what exactly is that? 🤔 I tried looking at Apple’s info page and it just describes it as “Sensitive Info”. 😬
@edward_jazzhands @mariuszklimczak
They don’t need to gather that through the app though if they really are a decentralised network.
(But they are much more reasonable requirements though than Threads etc, yes!)
That’s the point. The fediverse separates the app maker from people running lots of indie servers, so info isn’t centralised in any one place. It means people can choose who to trust with their info or even set up their own server.
Plus servers collecting the absolute minimum amount of info means there isn’t much info kicking around anyway (except what users choose to post).
The fact the BlueSky app collects any info is a red flag as decentralised networks are supposed to avoid this.
@[email protected]
Maybe this would help? It’s by NintendoLife’s PlayStation sister site Push Square:
https://www.pushsquare.com/guides/ps-app-how-to-send-ps5-screenshots-to-your-phone